One of the most important problems in reading is that we sometimes find the words which we don't understand. For solving this problem we can do in two ways.One is by guessing the meaning from the context and the other is by using a dictionary. Using a dictionary efficiently' we have to practice. The following exercises are designed to help you to use the dictionary successfully and rapidly.
All the words in the dictionary are in alphabetical order. The words beginning with A comes first. Then the words begin with B,C,D and so on to Z.
If the words begin with the same letter,for example, "nation" and "noble", we will look at the second letter. The words which have the same beginning letter will be arranged in alphabetical order. Therefore "nation" comes before "noble" in the dictionary
An efficient dictionary user can locate a word quickly. In addition to being skillful in following the alphabetical arrangement, he is adept in using the two guide words, you will find yourself locating words much more quickly
As your dictionary lies open at any page, you will notice four guide words, one at the top of the columns. Example guide words "vis" and "vistamaric" You are then ready to skim quickly down the columns of the page to find "vista"