New Concept English Self-Tutoring Dictionary (Volume 1)

Author: Tang Yijun
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2005-03-01
Features: Based on detailed records of questions raised by students during the author's long-term teaching practice, this book provides thorough analyses and research from the perspective of English-Chinese linguistic and cultural differences, with emphasis on key explanations. Over the years, the author has explored the language teaching philosophy of linguist L.G. Alexander and conducted extensive scientific research on the "New Concept English" textbook. Drawing on his teaching experience, he has compiled the "New Concept English Self-Study Dictionary," suitable for Chinese students and. The book is divided into four parts for handling text passages:
(1) Intensive Reading
The book elaborates on language difficulties in the passages, guiding readers to summarize, generalize, compare, and analyze similar linguistic phenomena, thereby cultivating self-study skills for beginners. It provides a detailed comparison of English and Chinese linguistic features, highlighting their differences while noting similarities. It meticulously analyzes common errors made by Chinese learners. For example, it compares key prepositions such as under/beneath/below (under), across/through (through), with/by/in (with, by, in), and to/too (toward, towards), emphasizing the with-structure. It explains the special meanings and usage of common verbs like do, have, make, take, and clarifies nuanced differences between near-synonyms such as include/contain (include, contain), put on/wear/dress (wear, dress), find/find out/discover (discover), cost/spend (cost, spend), and turn on/open (open).
(2) Key Structures
Focusing on grammar, the book explains linguistic structures clearly and systematically using simple concepts and examples. It analyzes the relationships and distinctions between different grammatical phenomena, identifying both differences and similarities to ensure accurate usage. It repeatedly explains grammatical points that are difficult for Chinese learners to understand and master, such as articles, participial structures, and the subjunctive mood. It provides detailed comparisons of easily confused grammatical points, including simple past perfect vs. past perfect continuous, simple future vs. future continuous, simple future vs. be going to, would vs. used to, restrictive vs. non-restrictive relative clauses, and present participles vs. gerunds. It also thoroughly introduces the usage and of coordinate conjunctions, conjunctive adverbs, and relative pronouns.
(3) Special Difficulties
This section helps readers resolve issues related to synonyms, homographs, homophones, phrasal verbs, and various special sentence patterns. For example, it clarifies the differences between travel/journey/trip/voyage (travel), steal/rob (steal, rob), and job/work (work), as well as between synonyms like grow/get/turn/go/come/fall (grow). It also addresses special structures such as too...to, enough...to, formal object it, and there is/it is.
(4) Supplementary Written Exercises
The book analyzes answers to exercises from grammar, syntax, morphology, linguistic thinking habits, and cultural traditions, explaining why certain answers are correct or incorrect to help self-learners understand the reasoning behind them. It supplements important sentence structures, grammar, and morphology not covered in the passages. Additionally, it provides examples to enhance comprehension and conducts detailed comparisons of similar grammatical phenomena, synonyms, and near-synonyms, forming cross-references with the "Intensive Reading" and "Special Difficulties" sections. The book also highlights questions commonly answered incorrectly by Chinese learners and misleading answer choices.