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Wikipedia

Learn English meaning of Wikipedia

Date: Sep 10 2019

Themes: How To, Tech, Work

Grammar: It's vs. Its

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Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

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2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

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We live in the age of information. One hundred years ago, if you wanted information about other parts of the world, you would need to write letters or use old books. And who knows how accurate they would be? But nowadays, you can learn pretty much anything about anything on a computer. And Wikipedia is always a good place to start.

Wikipedia is a free Internet encyclopedia, written in almost 300 different languages. If you want a fast answer to a question like “How far is the moon from Earth?,” Wikipedia will quickly tell you it is 385,000 km away. Wikipedia is so amazing because it ties together the large majority of human knowledge into one place.

Sara asks Gary what he thinks about Wikipedia. Find out more in today’s English lesson about doing research online.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Sara_R

Gary

Sara_R: Gary.

Gary: Yes?

Sara_R: I’m looking for an answer on a topic and I’m thinking about using Wikipedia.

Gary: Great idea.

Sara_R: OK. I just wonder if it’s reliable and accurate. I know because it’s user-generated, anyone can write anything.

Gary: That’s absolutely true. And of course because it’s free, it seems like the information might not be very accurate. That’s not actually true. It’s a great resource that people actually provide citations for and show you where that information came from. So you can determine, “Is this accurate or inaccurate information?”

Sara_R: Hmm… it is nice to get information at the click of a button.

Gary: True.

Sara_R: Have you ever contributed to Wikipedia?

Gary: I have! I’ve contributed a few times. And it’s actually really hard. It’s not as simple as editing email, for example.

Sara_R: Good to know.

Gary: Yeah.

Sara_R: Well, I will try it. Thank you.

Grammar Point

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Quizzes

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Discussion

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Sara is doing some research, but she isn’t sure exactly where to look. She is thinking about using Wikipedia, but she is not sure if the information she would find there is accurate. She does agree, though, that getting information at the click of a button is nice.

Gary thinks using Wikipedia is a great idea. He thinks the information found there is accurate because the website uses a lot of citations. He has even contributed to Wikipedia a couple of times!

Do you use Wikipedia? Do you think it is a reliable source for information?

Comments

Wordsmith

United States

Did anyone ever edit Wikipedia?

baharmbm

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

thanks a lot it was so useful

qq_baby

Taiwan

good

qq_baby

Taiwan

I use it all the time.

luisucab

Venezuela

I think, Wikipedia is a good tool to get information quickly and accurate. I read some articles there and I really impressed because you can find what ever yo want.

Some people prefer to go to the old librarys.

fcesur93

Turkey

i sometimes use the Wikipedia. it is not accurate all knowledge. because it is user-generated. some knowledge are accurate and some not. i think, when we look about a topic, we have to search resource. :)

maybe_more

Ukraine

I do use it and think it’s reliable

coskun3

Turkey

Hi, ı am want learn english, I am from Turkey, I am student, see you :)

Wuthering

United States

Google , Yahoo , Wikipedia are the great search engines , However , some information need to up-to-date such as prices ; maps ; leaders of countries …ect because the earth is always rotation …. lol

julito1

Argentina

Where has gone the times when to gather information on any given topic we had to rely on the Encyclopedia Brittanica . I am mostly a Wikipedia User, and if need be, in some cases i double check with another source of information.

ricoswift

China

wikipedia turly should deserve a good reputation. it helps a lot to me ,and to whoever wants to know things. But ,in China ,we have our own localized and featured search engine “Baidu”.

NavidArash

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

I’ve never had or read a printed version of encyclopedia in my life and If I ever bumped into a question about something then I would look for people with good general knowledge in family and acquaintances (these guys were also known as “living encyclopedias”) to ask my questions.

In fact I was doomed to die without knowing what a real encyclopedia might be, until Wikipedia emerged and became one of my favorite websites on the net and all thanks to the website, now It’s easy as apple pie to find my answers there.

Although It’s user-generated but I’ve never questioned its reliability and always considered Wikipedia as a dependable resource.