You may think that English dictionaries have been used for many centuries．In fact，an English dictionary you（26） 　 　today wasn't made until the Qing Dynasty（清朝）．Three men did most of the important（27） 　 　work on dictionaries．They spent nearly all their lives trying to （28） 　 　words for their dictionaries．For them，It was a wonderful journey．The largest dictionary in the world is the Oxford English Dictionary．The（29） 　 　for this dictionary came from an important meeting in Britain in 1857．Twenty﹣two years later，Oxford University asked James Murray to be the editor of its new dictionary．

Murray had never been to（30） 　 　．At the age of fourteen，he left his village school in Scotland and taught himself while working in a bank．（31） 　 　he became a great teacher．After Oxford give him the job，Murray had a small house （32） 　 　in his garden to do the work．Every morning，Mary got out of bed at five o'clock and（33） 　 　in the small house several hours before breakfast．Often he would work into the night．Murray hoped to finish the new dictionary in ten years．But after five years，he was（34） 　 　adding words for the letter "A"! He worked on the dictionary（35） 　 　he was very old．

Forty﹣four years later，In 1928，other editors finished the dictionary．

26．A．write	B．use	C．copy	D．miss
27．A. early	B．boring	C．easy	D．difficult
28．A. spell	B．collect	C．invent	D．make
29．A．way	B．use	C．idea	D．prize
30．A．school	B．cinema	C．village	D．college
31．A．Ever since	B．Since then	C．So far	D．Later
32．A．built	B．sold	C．broken	D．drawn
33．A．read	B．wrote	C．worked	D．thought
34．A．already	B．still	C．usually	D．always
35．A．if	B．because	C．until	D．unless