Based on the original edition, this quick-reference dictionary is designed for students of Chinese who have an elementary to intermediate knowledge of the language. At the same time, students of English will also find it helpful.

This dictionary contains a rich stock of more than 10,000 headwords commonly used in daily life, work and study, as well as in social activities. Vocabulary in the fields of politics, science and technology, etc., is confined to words employed in everyday communication. Also included are those English words which may not be regarded as high-frequency words, but whose Chinese equivalents appear often in relation to China or in communications between native and non-native speakers of Chinese.
     
Improving on the original edition, newly coined common terms relating to computers, Internet, etc. have been added. Many of the lengthy example sentences in the original edition have been removed to make the dictionary more compact and practical.
     
This dictionary differs from others intended for learners of English in two respects:
1. Definitions for each entry are not only given in Chinese characters, but also marked with the part of speech and the form in pinyin (the Chinese phonetic alphabet). Thus, the user can find the exact Chinese meaning of an English word, and at the same time, knows its syntactic function and pronunciation, thus saving the user the trouble of consulting other dictionaries.
    
2. The Chinese definitions of the entries are followed by examples of common usage, mostly in the form of phrases. The Chinese translations of these examples, also accompanied by pinyin, are concise, standard and practical, enabling the user to compare, comprehend and use them with ease.
    
The users of this dictionary will not fail to find it a good teacher and helpful companion in their study and practical use of the Chinese language.