Collins Bridge to English

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With Crosswords and Learning Exercises
English Talking Dictionary

This software will be helpful for anyone who needs to use the English language - professional and business users who need it at work as well as schoolchildren and students for their studies. Now you can have the highest quality dictionary always to hand for checking the spelling, meanings and pronunciation of the word you need.

The English Talking Dictionary includes an electronic version of the explanatory Collins English dictionary and digital sound bases for all headwords. The dictionary has over 68,000 references. The software includes crosswords - the traditional and ever-popular pastime - which are built up automatically, using the database of the dictionary. For English language learners we have developed a set of computer-based learning excercises - the Shooting Gallery and AudioPad.
The electronic version of the dictionary has the same content as its paper counterpart, but is much easier to use. All short forms and abbreviations used in the dictionary are explained in full in the pop-up prompts when the cursor is positioned on them. All the headwords in the dictionary are spoken by professional native speakers. This enables you not only to see the meaning of a word but also to listen to all the correct pronunciations of the word and even to practise your own pronunciation with the help of the AudioPad. The dictionary is fully cross-referenced, i.e. by clicking on any word in the explanation section you can see the definition of this word and then easily revert to the original section. It also includes a quick search facility. To find a particular word you only need to start typing the word in the quick search field. As each new letter is entered the program automatically looks for the first most likely word and this will appear in the dictionary area. This allows you to find the required word quickly from the first few letters without having to enter the whole word.

Additional facilities are provided by the MemoPad, in which you can enter any word from the dictionary and use it as a bookmark to quickly switch to a required word. Also any chosen set of words can be transferred to the Shooting Gallery directly from the dictionary in order to practise the spelling or it can be saved as a separate file for further use in the dictionary or Shooting Gallery.

Crosswords are a traditional pastime and in our software are generated in a flash by a powerful system using the English Talking Dictionary as a database. You must guess the words using the definitions as clues. Words are chosen from the dictionary at random and are never repeated. The program creates a crossword in a split second omitting any words which have been previously "guessed".

There are 3 modes for the crosswords according to level of difficulty:

Learning mode. This is the simplest option. It is designed for those who have just started learning the language. In this mode you can first look through and memorise the words which appear in the crossword.

Normal mode. This is a more difficult mode. It is designed for those students who need to extend and refresh their existing vocabulary. In this mode you guess each word from all the definitions of that word.

Difficult mode. This is the most difficult mode. It is designed for those who are aiming for fluency in the language. In this mode you guess each word from only one of its definitions.