When I first entered university, my aunt, who is an English professor, gave me a new English dictionary. I was 1 to see that it was an English-English dictionary, also known as a monolingual (只用一种语言的) dictionary. 2 it was a dictionary intended for non-native learners, none of my classmates had one 3, to be honest, I found it extremely 4 to use at first. I would look up words in the dictionary and5 not fully understand the meanings. I was used to the 6 bilingual dictionaries, in which the words are 7 both in English and Chinese. I really wondered why my aunt gave me such 8 to make things so difficult for me. Now, after studying English at university for three years, I 9 that monolingual dictionaries are 10in learning a foreign language.
As I found out, there is, 11, often no perfect equivalence (对应) between two 12 in two languages. My aunt even goes so far as to 13 that a Chinese “equivalent” can never give you the 14 meaning of a word in English! 15 she insisted that I read the definition (释义) of a word in a monolingual dictionary when I wanted to get a better 16 of its meaning. 17, I have come to see what she meant.
Using a monolingual dictionary for learners has helped me in another important way. This dictionary uses a(n) 18 number of words, around 2,000, in its definitions. When I read these definitions, I am19 exposed to the basic words and learn how they are used to explain objects and ideas. 20 this, I can express myself more easily in English.
