Look it up
"Why don't you read the dictionary?" my dad asked.
"I can't do that," I said.
"Yes you can and I promise you that if you will read one page of the dictionary every single day and choose three words from each page to use during that day, you will have a vocabulary that will allow you to express anything you ever want to say."
I'm not sure which dictionary my dad had in mind, but my favorite version was part of the Encyclopedia Britannica that we had in our home. This was a two volume reference set that took me almost four years to finish. Had I followed my dad's advice and only read one page per day, it would have taken nearly twice that long. This collection of words represents the ultimate in Scrabble nightmares because almost every combination of letters spelled out some word. For years, I thought the term obs. for obsolete was the most common word in the English language as I had encountered it in what seemed like every other entry.
In order to spell out and define so many words, the editors used a very small typeface. I didn't have any problem with the size of the type, though there were numerous words that I understood less after reading their definitions than I did before. But I can attest that it was easy to discover three words to incorporate into my general vocabulary and confirm that my dad's promise is real. Anyone who wants to succeed in their oral presentations, simply needs to read one page of a dictionary every single day and find three words to use at least three times during that day. In this age of texting, that isn't even a challenge.
My mother knew I had a great love for words and she had seen me reading the dictionary on a regular basis. One day we were discussing something that I had heard and believed to be true and she claimed that I was gullible. After trying to defend my position and finding that my mother was simply brushing aside my fervent claims I went to the only remaining card up my sleeve. I shrewdly revealed the biggest secret of the dictionary, "You know mom, gullible isn't a word. It's not even in the dictionary."
Like most of you, my mother didn't believe that claim for a moment. I insisted that it was true and even retrieved the dictionary for her to try and refute my claim. To my astonishment, after looking at several pages in the dictionary my mom looked up from the book, shook her head from side to side as she sighed, "You're right. It's not there." Triumphant I celebrated my victory but I was stumped. I checked where she was looking and found that the word was not there. She had mistaken an i for an L. Believe it or not, gullible is not a word in the dictionary, if you're looking near guilty or guillotine.
"I can't do that," I said.
"Yes you can and I promise you that if you will read one page of the dictionary every single day and choose three words from each page to use during that day, you will have a vocabulary that will allow you to express anything you ever want to say."
I'm not sure which dictionary my dad had in mind, but my favorite version was part of the Encyclopedia Britannica that we had in our home. This was a two volume reference set that took me almost four years to finish. Had I followed my dad's advice and only read one page per day, it would have taken nearly twice that long. This collection of words represents the ultimate in Scrabble nightmares because almost every combination of letters spelled out some word. For years, I thought the term obs. for obsolete was the most common word in the English language as I had encountered it in what seemed like every other entry.
In order to spell out and define so many words, the editors used a very small typeface. I didn't have any problem with the size of the type, though there were numerous words that I understood less after reading their definitions than I did before. But I can attest that it was easy to discover three words to incorporate into my general vocabulary and confirm that my dad's promise is real. Anyone who wants to succeed in their oral presentations, simply needs to read one page of a dictionary every single day and find three words to use at least three times during that day. In this age of texting, that isn't even a challenge.
My mother knew I had a great love for words and she had seen me reading the dictionary on a regular basis. One day we were discussing something that I had heard and believed to be true and she claimed that I was gullible. After trying to defend my position and finding that my mother was simply brushing aside my fervent claims I went to the only remaining card up my sleeve. I shrewdly revealed the biggest secret of the dictionary, "You know mom, gullible isn't a word. It's not even in the dictionary."
Like most of you, my mother didn't believe that claim for a moment. I insisted that it was true and even retrieved the dictionary for her to try and refute my claim. To my astonishment, after looking at several pages in the dictionary my mom looked up from the book, shook her head from side to side as she sighed, "You're right. It's not there." Triumphant I celebrated my victory but I was stumped. I checked where she was looking and found that the word was not there. She had mistaken an i for an L. Believe it or not, gullible is not a word in the dictionary, if you're looking near guilty or guillotine.
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