ThreeEnglishdictionariespublishedrecentlyalllayclaimtopossessinga “new” feature. TheBBCEnglishDictionarycontainsbackgroundinformationon 1,000 peopleandplacesprominentinthenewssince 1988; theOxfordAdvancedLearner ’sDictionary: EncyclopedicEditionistheOALDplusencyclopedicentries; theLongmanDictionaryofEnglishLanguageandCultureistheLDOCEplusculturalinformation.
Thekeyfactisthatallthreedictionariescanbeseentohaveadistinctly “cultural” aswellaslanguagelearningcontent. Thatbeingsaid, thewayinwhichtheyapproachtheculturalelementisnotidentical, makingdirectcomparisonsbetweenthethreedifficult.
Whilethereissomecommongroundbetweentheencyclopedic/culturalentriesfortheOxfordandLongmandictionaries, thereisacleardifference. OxfordlaysclaimtobeingencyclopediconcontentwhereasLongmandistinctlyconcentratesonthelanguageandcultureoftheEnglish?speakingworld. TheOxforddictionarycanthereforestandmorevigorousscrutinyforculturalbiasthantheLongmanpublicationbecausethelatterdoesnothesitateaboutviewingtherestoftheworldfromtheculturalperspectivesoftheEnglish?speakingworld. TheculturalobjectivesoftheBBCdictionaryareinturnmoredistinctstill. Basedonananalysisofover 70 millionwordsrecordedfromtheBBCWorldServiceandNationalPublicRadioofWashingtonoveraperiodoffouryears, their 1,000 briefencyclopedicentriesarebasedonpeopleandplacesthathavefeaturedinthenewsrecently. TheintendedusertheyhaveinmindisaregularlistenertotheWorldServicewhowillhaveareasonablestandardofEnglishandadevelopedskillinlisteningcomprehension.
Inreality, though, theBBCdictionarywillbepurchasedbyafarwiderrangeoflanguagelearners, aswilltheothertwodictionaries. Wewillbefacedwithasituationwheremanyoftheusersofthesedictionarieswillattheveryleasthavedistinctsocio?culturalperspectivesandmayhaveworldviewswhicharetotallyopposedandevenhostiletothoseoftheWest. Advancedlearnersformthiskindofbackgroundwillnotonlyevaluateadictionaryonhowuser?friendlyitisbutwillalsohavedefiniteviewsaboutthescopeandappropriatenessofthevarioussocio?culturalentries.?
1. Whatfeaturesetsapartthethreedictionariesdiscussedinthepassagefromtraditionalones??
A. Thecombinationoftwodictionariesintoone.?
B. Thenewapproachtodefiningwords.?
C. Theinclusionofculturalcontent.?
D. Theincreaseinthenumberofentries. ?
2. TheLongmandictionaryismorelikelytobecriticizedforculturalprejudicebecause ?______?.?
A. itsscopeofculturalentriesgoesbeyondthecultureoftheEnglish?speakingworld?
B. itpayslittleattentiontotheculturalcontentofthenon?English?speakingcountries?
C. itviewstheworldpurelyfromthestandpointoftheEnglish?speakingpeople?
D. itfailstodistinguishlanguagefromcultureinitsencyclopedicentries?
3. Itisimpliedinthelastparagraphthat, inapproachingsocio?culturalcontentinadictionary,socialthoughtshouldbegivento ?___ ___?.
A. thelanguagelevelsofitsusers?
B. thenumberofitsprospectivepurchasers?
C. thedifferenttastesofitsusers?
D. thevariousculturalbackgroundsofitsusers