You may think that English dictionaries have been used for many，many centuries. In fact，an English dictionary you1 today wasn't made until the Qing Dynasty. Three men did most of the important 2 work on dictionaries. They spent nearly all their lives trying to 3 words for their dictionaries. For them，it was a wonderful journey. The largest dictionary in the world is the Oxford English Dictionary. The4 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（编者） of its new dictionary.
Murray had never been to5 . At the age of fourteen，he left his village school in Scotland and taught himself while working in a bank. 6 he become a great teacher. After Oxford gave him the job，Murray had a small house7 in his garden to do the work. Every morning，Murray got out of bed at five o'clock and8 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 9 adding（增加） words for the letter"A"!He worked on the dictionary 10 he was very old. Forty—four years later，in1928，other editor s finished the dictionary.
