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VV VV BBBBBBB 33333 00000 VV VV BB BB 33 33 000000 VV VV BB BB 33 00 00 VV VV BB BB 33 00 00 VV VV BBBBBBB 333 00 00 VV VV BB BB 33 00 00 VVVV BB BB 33 00 00 VVV BB BB 33 33 000 000 VV BBBBBBB 33333 ** 00000 ___________________________ Foreign Language Vocabulary Builder ___________________________ by Norman C. Saunders and Frances M. Coniglio # Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 What Vocabulary Builder Does 1 1.2 A History of VB 2 1.3 Systems Considerations 2 Chapter 2 Running VB 4 2.1 VB Commands 4 2.1.1 I)ntroduction to Vocabulary Builder 4 2.1.2 M)ake a Word List 4 2.1.3 E)dit a Word List 5 2.1.4 A)dd Words to a List 5 2.1.5 D)elete a Word List, R)ename a Word List 6 2.1.6 P)rint a Word List 6 2.1.7 S)tudy a Word List 6 2.1.8 T)esting for Mastery 7 2.1.9 W)hat Lists are Available 7 2.1.10 C)hange Languages 7 2.2 Hints for using VB 8 Appendix A Distribution Disk Files 9 Appendix B Installation 10 B.1 With Turbo Pascal 10 B.2 Without Turbo Pascal 11 Appendix C Borland Installation Instructions 12 C.1 TERMINAL INSTALLATION 12 C.2 IBM PC Display Selection 12 C.3 Non-IBM PC Installation 13 Appendix D List of HELP.VB 20 D.1 What Vocabulary Builder Does For You 20 D.2 Naming a Word List 20 D.3 Building a Word List 21 D.4 Editing a Word List 21 D.5 Adding Words to a List 22 D.6 Studying a List 22 D.7 Testing for Mastery 23 D.8 Hints for Using VB 23 D.9 Verb Hints 23 VOCABULARY BUILDER July 3, 1985 Page 1 Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 What Vocabulary Builder Does Vocabulary Builder (VB) is a program to help you learn your foreign language vocabulary. The editing tools provided allow you to build and maintain customized lists of vocabulary words and their associated foreign language translations. In study mode, you go over your word lists and commit them to memory. In test mode, you see if you have truly mastered a list. The program, once installed, is intended to be self-documenting. If you do get confused at any point, though, a more complete description of all the VB commands is included below in section 2.1. We've attempted to minimize computer jargon in the documentation and in the associated help files. Also, extensive error checking is carried out by VB to keep you from inadvertantly destroying an existing word list or from getting some incomprehensible computer error message. Any suggestions for further improvements, or reports of problems with the program, should be forwarded to the authors. VB is a copyrighted program. We, the authors, freely release it to the public domain for use by all interested parties. Sale of this program and any associated data files, or packaging of any of the VB material with other material for sale is forbidden without the express written consent of the authors. VB has one major limitation. It will only handle foreign languages which can be expressed in the English alphabet. Cyrillic, Greek, and Chinese, for example, can only be studied insofar as these languages may be transliterated from their native alphabets. Also, special accent marks or punctuation not included on a standard Qwerty keyboard are not available to VB users. VB was developed to run on as broad a range of computers as possible, many of which don't VOCABULARY BUILDER July 3, 1985 Page 2 have the character set or graphics capabilities to handle non-English alphabets. 1.2 A History of VB VB was first conceived when my son began taking French in middle school. He was having trouble committing the flood of strange, new words to memory and was getting rapidly discouraged. I wrote version 1 in the SBasic language, a structured programming language distributed with early models of the Kaypro computer. This rapidly-put-together program served its intended purpose and got my son through that first year of foreign language study. When I received my first copy of Turbo Pascal (version 1.0) from Borland International, I cast about for a suitable project and settled on a translation of VB from SBasic to Pascal, resulting in version 2 of VB. Since that time I've done quite a bit more programming in Pascal and when I saw Micro Cornucopia's announcement of a Pascal programming contest, I decided, along with an associate, to completely re-write VB, adding capabilities to the program, enhancing VB's error-checking, and generally making the tone of the program as helpful and non-judgmental as possible. Thus was born version 3.0 of VB, the current version. 1.3 Systems Considerations Alas, as much as we wanted to avoid technical matters, there comes a time in most documentation when at least some is necessary. Most of the technical material has been relegated to the appendices but we wanted to state at this point on which computers we know VB will run. VB is written in Turbo Pascal. The only section of the program containing operating system dependent code is (so far as we know) the disk directory section. Separate INCLUDE files are provided, one for CP/M-based systems and VOCABULARY BUILDER July 3, 1985 Page 3 the other for those computers running under MS-DOS. The VB program has been compiled successfully with both versions 2.0 and 3.0 of Turbo Pascal and has been tested on a Kaypro II and an Apple ][+ running under CP/M, and on an IBM XT and a Sperry portable running under MS-DOS. Further installation details, both for those who do own Turbo Pascal and for those who don't, is included in appendices B and C. There, that wasn't too painful, was it? VOCABULARY BUILDER July 3, 1985 Page 4 Chapter 2 Running VB 2.1 VB Commands Following is a more detailed description of the commands VB recognizes than is available while running the program itself. If you get confused while using VB, or if you just like to read long documentation files, then this next section is for you! Upon entry to VB you'll first see the copyright notice (we had to get our names in there somewhere), followed by VB's main menu with the following commands: 2.1.1 I)ntroduction to Vocabulary Builder This selection from the main VB menu presents a second menu of help files which you may then choose to display on-screen. Appendix D contains a listing of these files as well. 2.1.2 M)ake a Word List This is the command you use to create new word lists. When you issue the command, VB first asks you what you want to call your list. The name must be no longer than eight characters and must begin with an alphabetic character. Embedded blanks are not allowed in the name. The name may be entered in either upper or lower case (all of your responses to VB may be in either case, but more on this later). VB will then ask you for the first English word, and then for its foreign language translation. This will continue until you terminate the process by entering a carriage VOCABULARY BUILDER July 3, 1985 Page 5 return in response to the 'Enter English Word' prompt, or until the list reaches its maximum length of 25 word pairs. Although you may have as many as 25 pairs of words in any one list, we recommend that you initially stick with shorter lists, on the order of ten to fifteen word pairs. Generally speaking, a list will be easier to master if you keep it fairly short and you will also be able to add related words to the list at a later time as you run across them in your study of the language. The maximum length for entries in a word list is 40 characters, including any embedded blanks. That is, you can also use entire phrases rather than just single words in your list. We suggest that all entries to a word list be in lower case entirely unless you are dealing with a proper noun. This will avoid confusion later when you're studying the list or testing your mastery of the list. 2.1.3 E)dit a Word List VB will first ask if you need to see a directory of available lists and will then request the name of the list you want to edit. After reading the list from the language diskette, where it was stored by the 'Make Word List' command, VB will present each word pair, English part first, followed by the foreign language translation. A word is displayed on the screen and you then have an opportunity to change it. If you wish to change the displayed word or phrase, type in the complete replacement, followed by a carriage return. If you wish to leave the word or phrase as it stands, simply enter a carriage return. VB will move in this fashion through the entire word list. Then, all changes you have entered will be saved in the word list file on the language diskette. 2.1.4 A)dd Words to a List VB will again ask if you need to see a directory, then will request the name of the list to be augmented. After reading the list, VB will tell you how many word pairs are currently included then begin asking you for additional pairs of words. As with the 'Make Word List' command, you may terminate the command by entering a carriage return at the 'Enter English Word' prompt or by reaching the limit of 25 word pairs. VB will then re-save the expanded list on VOCABULARY BUILDER July 3, 1985 Page 6 the language diskette. 2.1.5 D)elete a Word List, R)ename a Word List These two commands allow for rudimentary file management on your language diskette by letting you clean out old files you no longer need or rename existing files. Both commands ask if you need to see a directory of available lists before you proceed. 2.1.6 P)rint a Word List If you have a printer available you can get a printed copy of your word lists with this command. We especially recommend doing this when the foreign language words include any special accents or other diacritical marks. You can enter the marks directly on the printout by hand so that you'll be sure not to forget about them. 2.1.7 S)tudy a Word List The study command first asks if you wish to see a directory of available lists then requests the name of the list you wish to go over. VB then asks how you want the list presented: from English to the foreign language or from the foreign language to English. The list is presented in a random ordering, different every time you study the list. If the list were always presented beginning with the first word pair then continuing on until the last were reached, you would begin to anticipate the correct answer simply from the order of presentation. The random approach avoids this problem. VB gives you either an English word or a foreign language word (depending on how you want to study the list) then asks for a translation. Enter the answer you believe is correct followed by a carriage return. VB will immediately tell you whether you got it right or not. If you did get it right then VB will move along to the next word pair. If not, VB displays the correct answer on the screen and requests that you, in turn, enter the correct response from the keyboard. This provides both visual and tactile reinforcement to the VOCABULARY BUILDER July 3, 1985 Page 7 learning process. When you've completed the list, VB will tell you how you did on the attempt then return you to the main menu. 2.1.8 T)esting for Mastery Once you feel you've fully mastered a list, you can test yourself. After the usual requests for directory and list name, VB will offer you three choices for list presentation: from English to the foreign language, from the foreign language to English, or a random movement between the two. As with the study command, the order of list presentation is always random. Testing for mastery proceeds pretty much as with studying except you don't get immediate feedback on whether your translation was correct or not. Rather, VB goes through the entire list then tells you how you did and presents a list of words that need further study. We recommend that you take all three types of test after you feel you've mastered a particular list, just to make sure that you don't have any word pairs that need further study. 2.1.9 W)hat Lists are Available This command generates a list of all the word lists you currently have saved on the language diskette. 2.1.10 C)hange Languages If you're studying more than one language or if there are two or more people saving word lists in different languages on the language diskette, then this command will help you keep things straight. When VB is first started up it assumes a language by default (see appendix B for more information on this point). The screen headings and the help files are all customized to reflect the language default. Also, and more importantly, all word lists that are created with VB are saved on the language diskette with the VOCABULARY BUILDER July 3, 1985 Page 8 file name that you specify and with the file name extension made up of the first three letters of the language currently under study. For example, if VB has been configured as the 'French Vocabulary Builder,' then all word lists created by the user are saved as 'listname.FRE' on the language diskette. If some one else in the family is studying Spanish, then all of their word lists are stored as 'listname.SPA.' Whenever you request a directory of word lists, only those with the extent corresponding to the current language are displayed. This allows two or more users who are studying different languages to use the same list names without fear of treading on each other's toes. Also, it keeps VB's directory listing relatively uncluttered. 2.2 Hints for using VB Vocabulary Builder won't help very much with language syntax and it certainly won't help you learn to speak a foreign language. If used conscientously and with imagination, however, it will help you with that tedious but most important task of expanding your vocabulary. Keep your word lists fairly short so that you can add to them later and so that they'll be easier to master at first. Regular verbs may be gathered together into groups in single word lists but irregular verbs should have one or more lists dedicated to each verb so you can study all the forms that the verb can take on. Go over your lists often and don't forget to review them occasionally even when you've mastered a list, just to refresh your memory. VOCABULARY BUILDER July 3, 1985 Page 9 Appendix A Distribution Disk Files VB.PAS -- Main program source code VB-BLK1.INC -- Support procedures and functions VB-BLK2.INC -- Main menu command procedures VB-BLK3.INC -- More main menu command procedures VBDIRCPM.INC -- Directory procedures-CP/M version VBDIRDOS.INC -- Directory proceduress-MS-DOS version VB30.DOC -- This file HELP.VB -- Help file accessible from VB VB.COM -- Executable file-CP/M version VB.000 -- Overlay code file (part of executable file) VB30I.COM -- Installation routine-CP/M version VB30I.MSG -- Installation program messages VB30I.DTA -- Hardware installation parameters VOCABULARY BUILDER July 3, 1985 Page 10 Appendix B Installation You can install VB in two different ways, depending on whether or not you own the Turbo Pascal compiler. Each is detailed below. B.1 With Turbo Pascal 1. Edit the file VB.PAS - modify the constant 'Language' to reflect the default language VB will assume when you run the program. - make sure that the Include statement near the beginning of VB.PAS reflects your operating system: {$I VBDIR???.INC}, where '???' is either 'CPM' or 'DOS.' Generally speaking, if you're running an 8-bit computer (with an 8080 or Z80 microprocessor) then you would select 'CPM.' If you are using an IBM PC or XT or one of the IBM clones, then you would select 'DOS.' If you are one of the few people with a 16-bit system that uses CP/M86 as the operating system, then you may be out of luck unless you're able to write your own directory routines. 2. Compile the VB program - specify VB.PAS as the main program file - use the C compiler option to generate a .COM file 3. Put together a language diskette with the files VB.COM, VB.000, and HELP.VB. VOCABULARY BUILDER July 3, 1985 Page 11 That's all there is to it! B.2 Without Turbo Pascal 1. Select the proper version of VB for your operating system. 8-bit computers such as the Kaypro would use the 'CPM' version while most 16-bit computers such as the IBM series would use the 'DOS' version. See the 'With Turbo Pascal' section, above, for more information. 2. Copy the following files to a blank, formatted diskette: - VB???.COM - VB???.000 - VB???I.COM - VB30I.MSG - VB30I.DTA - HELP.VB 3. If you own a Kaypro or an IBM PC or XT, then you can try to run VB30 without installing the program. If things look funny on the screen or if you own some other computer, then run the installation program and follow the directions. For further information on the installation program, refer to appendix C. 4. Select a default language for VB. As distributed, VB's default language is French. If this is the language you'll be studying, then read no further. If you want VB to start up with a different language then you must use your word processor or text editor to create a file called LANGUAGE.VB which will have nothing in it except one line with the name of the language followed by a carriage return. Don't forget, you can always change the language default from the main menu, but it's a little classier to have the program start up with the right language. VOCABULARY BUILDER July 3, 1985 Page 12 Appendix C Borland Installation Instructions C.1 TERMINAL INSTALLATION Before you use VB, it must be installed to your particular terminal, i.e. provided with information regarding control characters required for certain functions. This installation is easily performed using the program VB30I which is described in the following. After having made a work-copy, please store your distribution diskette safely away and work only on the copy. Now start the installation by typing VB30I at your terminal. Select Screen installation from the main menu. Depending on your version of VB, the installation proceeds as described in the following two sections. C.2 IBM PC Display Selection If you use VB without installation, the default screen set-up will be used. You may override this default by selecting another screen mode from this menu: ------------------------------------------------------------------ Choose one of the following displays: 0) Default display mode VOCABULARY BUILDER July 3, 1985 Page 13 1) Monochrome display 2) Color display 80x25 3) Color display 40x25 4) b/w display 80x25 5) b/w display 40x25 Which display (enter no. or X to exit) ------------------------------------------------------------------ IBM PC Screen Installation Menu Each time VB runs, the selected mode will be used, and you will return to the default mode on exit. C.3 Non-IBM PC Installation A menu listing a number of popular terminals will appear, inviting you to choose one by entering its number: ------------------------------------------------------------------ Choose one of the following terminals: 1) ADDS 20/25/30 15) Lear-Siegler ADM-31 2) ADDS 40/60 16) Liberty 3) ADDS Viewpoint-1A 17) Morrow MDT-20 4) ADM 3A 18) Otrona Attache 5) Ampex D80 19) Qume 6) ANSI 20) Soroc IQ-120 7) Apple/graphics 21) Soroc new models 8) Hazeltine 1500 22) Teletext 3000 9) Hazeltine Esprit 23) Televideo 912/920/925 10) IBM PC CCP/M b/w 24) Visual 200 11) IBM PC CCP/M color 25) Wyse WY-100/200/300 12) Kaypro 10 26) Zenith 13) Kaypro II and 4 27) None of the above 14) Lear-Siegler ADM-20 28) Delete a definition Which terminal? (Enter no. or X to exit): ------------------------------------------------------------------ Terminal Installation Menu If your terminal is mentioned, just enter the corresponding number, and the installation is complete. Before installation is actually performed, you are asked the question: VOCABULARY BUILDER July 3, 1985 Page 14 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Do you want to modify the definition before installation? ------------------------------------------------------------------ This allows you to modify one or more of the values being installed as described in the following. If you do not want to modify the terminal definition, just type N, and the installation completes by asking you the operating frequency of your CPU (see last item in this appendix). If your terminal is not on the menu, however, you must define the required values yourself. The values can most probably be found in the manual supplied with your terminal. Enter the number corresponding to None of the above and answer the questions one by one as they appear on the screen. In the following, each command you may install is described in detail. Your terminal may not support all the commands that can be installed. If so, just pass the command not needed by typing RETURN in response to the prompt. If Delete line, Insert line, or Erase to end of line is not installed, these functions will be emulated in software, slowing screen performance somewhat. Commands may be entered either simply by pressing the appropriate keys or by entering the decimal or hexadecimal ASCII value of the command. If a command requires the two characters 'ESCAPE' and '=', you may: either Press first the Esc key, then the =. The entry will be echoed with appropriate labels, i.e. <ESC> =. or Enter the decimal or hexadecimal values separated by spaces. Hexadecimal values must be preceded by a dollar- sign. Enter e.g. 27 61 or $1B 61 or $1B $3D which are all equivalent. The two methods cannot be mixed, i.e. once you have entered a non-numeric character, the rest of that command VOCABULARY BUILDER July 3, 1985 Page 15 must be defined in that mode, and vise versa. A hyphen entered as the very first character is used to delete a command, and echoes the text Nothing. Terminal type: ------------------------------------------------------------------ Enter the name of the terminal you are about to install. When you complete VB30I, the values will be stored, and the terminal name will appear on the initial list of terminals. If you later need to re-install VB to this terminal, you can do that by choosing it from the list. Send an initialization string to the terminal? ------------------------------------------------------------------ If you want to initialize your terminal when VB starts (e.g. to download commands to programmable function keys), you answer Y for yes to this question. If not, just hit RETURN. If you answer Y, you may choose between entering the command directly or defining a file name containing the command string. The latter is a good idea if the initialization string is long, as e.g. a string to program a number of function keys would be. Send a reset string to the terminal? ------------------------------------------------------------------ Here, you may define a string to be sent to the terminal when VB terminates. The description of the initialization command above applies here. CURSOR LEAD-IN command: ------------------------------------------------------------------ Cursor Lead-in is a special sequence of characters which tells your terminal that the following characters are an VOCABULARY BUILDER July 3, 1985 Page 16 address on the screen on which the cursor should be placed. When you define this command, you are asked the following supplementary questions: CURSOR POSITIONING COMMAND to send between line and column: ----------------------------------------------------------- Some terminals need a command between the two numbers defining the row- and column cursor address. CURSOR POSITIONING COMMAND to send after line and column: ----------------------------------------------------------- Some terminals need a command after the two numbers defining the row- and column cursor address. Column first? ----------------------------------------------------------- Most terminals require the address on the format: first ROW, then COLUMN. If this is the case on your terminal, answer N. If your terminal wants COLUMN first, then ROW, then answer Y. OFFSET to add to LINE ----------------------------------------------------------- Enter the number to add to the LINE (ROW) address. OFFSET to add to COLUMN ----------------------------------------------------------- Enter the number to add to the COLUMN address. Binary address? ----------------------------------------------------------- Most terminals need the cursor address sent on binary form. If that is true for your terminal, enter Y. If your terminal expects the cursor address as ASCII digits, enter N. If so, you are asked the supplementary question: 2 or 3 ASCII digits? --------------------------------------------------------- Enter the number of digits in the cursor address for your terminal. VOCABULARY BUILDER July 3, 1985 Page 17 CLEAR SCREEN command: ------------------------------------------------------------------ Enter the command that will clear the entire contents of your screen, both foreground and background, if applicable. Does CLEAR SCREEN also HOME cursor? ------------------------------------------------------------------ This is normally the case; if it is not so on your terminal, enter N, and define the cursor HOME command. DELETE LINE command: ------------------------------------------------------------------ Enter the command that deletes the entire line at the cursor position. INSERT LINE command: ------------------------------------------------------------------ Enter the command that inserts a line at the cursor position. ERASE TO END OF LINE command: ------------------------------------------------------------------ Enter the command that erases the line at the cursor position from the cursor position through the right end of the line. START OF 'LOW VIDEO' command: ------------------------------------------------------------------ If your terminal supports different video intensities, then define the command that initiates the dim video here. VOCABULARY BUILDER July 3, 1985 Page 18 If this command is defined, the following question is asked: START OF 'NORMAL VIDEO' command: ------------------------------------------------------------ Define the command that sets the screen to show characters in 'normal' video. Number of rows (lines) on your screen: ------------------------------------------------------------------ Enter the number of horizontal lines on your screen. Number of columns on your screen: ------------------------------------------------------------------ Enter the number of vertical column positions on your screen. Delay after CURSOR ADDRESS (0-255 ms): Delay after CLEAR, DELETE, and INSERT (0-255 ms): Delay after ERASE TO END OF LINE and HIGHLIGHT On/Off (0-255 ms): ------------------------------------------------------------------ Enter the delay in milliseconds required after the functions specified. RETURN means 0 (no delay). Is this definition correct? ------------------------------------------------------------------ If you have made any errors in the definitions, enter N. You will then return to the terminal selection menu. The installation data you haver just entered will be included in the installation data file and appear on the terminal selection menu, but installation will not be performed. When you enter Y in response to this question, you are asked: VOCABULARY BUILDER July 3, 1985 Page 19 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Operating frequency of your microprocessor in MHz (for delays): ------------------------------------------------------------------ As the delays specified earlier are depending on the operating frequency of your CPU, you must define this value. The installation is finished, installation data is written to VB, and you return to the outer menu. New installation data is also saved in the installation data file and the new terminal will appear on the terminal selection list when you run VB30I in future. VOCABULARY BUILDER July 3, 1985 Page 20 Appendix D List of HELP.VB Following is a list of the file HELP.VB which is nrmally available online while running VB. Although the listing contains many references to 'French' as the language, please keep in mind that you can customize VB for any language. Refer to section 2.1 and to Appendix B for more information on modifying the default language. D.1 What Vocabulary Builder Does For You VOCABULARY BUILDER (VB) is a program designed to help you learn your French vocabulary. VB allows you to build small lists of words in both English and French. Breaking your vocabulary study into smaller chunks will make it easier for you to learn the meanings of the words and will allow you to build specialized lists of words such as animal names, action verbs, etc. VB allows you to study a list of words from English to French or from French to English. The order in which the words are presented for study is always different so you don't end up just memorizing a list. Once you think you know the words in your list, you can take a test to see if you have really mastered the vocabulary. You may either specify English to French, French to English, or jump back and forth in a random fashion. D.2 Naming a Word List When you create a new word list VB will first ask you what you want to call the list. The name may be up to eight VOCABULARY BUILDER July 3, 1985 Page 21 characters long, must begin with a letter of the alphabet, and may contain both letters and numbers. Embedded blanks are not allowed in a word list title. Try to make the list name as meaningful as possible in terms of the type of words in the list. That way it will be easier to remember what a particular list contains. Some examples of valid list names are: ANIMALS FOODS CHAPTER2 REGVERBS TOBE TOHAVE D.3 Building a Word List Once you have named the word list, VB will ask you for an English word and then for the French translation. This continues until you respond to the prompt to enter an English word with a carriage return, signifying that you don't wish to enter any more word pairs at this time, or until the list is filled with the maximum of 25 word pairs. You may enter single words or whole phrases at either the English or French prompts. The word or phrase may be up to 40 characters in length, including any embedded blanks. Be careful about upper-case letters. If you begin a word with an upper-case letter but later try to translate it with a lower-case entry, VB will judge that you have made a mistake in spelling. VB then saves the list on your disk and returns you to the main menu. D.4 Editing a Word List VB first asks you what list you wish to edit. The program will then tell you what the first English word is and ask if you care to replace it. If you don't want to change the word as it is sshown, simply enter a carriage return. If you do wish to modify it or replace it entirely, enter the new word or phase followed by a carriage return. Even if you only want to change one character, you must retype the entire word! VOCABULARY BUILDER July 3, 1985 Page 22 VB will then present the French translation for your inspection. The process continues until each word pair in the list has been pre- sented for your approval. When the entire list has been covered, any changes you specified are then written to the disk file and you may return to the Main Menu or elect to edit other word lists. D.5 Adding Words to a List As you continue to expand your vocabulary, you will often run across new words that are related to words in lists you created at some earlier time and which you may wish to add to those earlier lists. VB will read the list you specify into memory and, as long as the list does not already have it's full complement of 25 word pairs, and will then ask you for additions to that list. This way you can keep your lists up-to-date as you expand your vo- cabulary and find new words that you wish to master. D.6 Studying a List After finding out which list you want to study, VB will then ask you how you want the list to be presented, either from English to French, or from French to English. VB will then ask you the words in a ran- dom order, never presenting the same way twice in a row. This ensures that you actually learn the words and not just anticipate their ordering. If you miss a translation, VB will tell you what the correct answer is, then ask you to immediately type in the correct response. When you have finished studying a particular list, VB will tell you how you did with it. You should study a list in both directions until you feel that you have mastered it, then go on to test that mastery. VOCABULARY BUILDER July 3, 1985 Page 23 D.7 Testing for Mastery VB allows you to select from three types of tests: English to French, French to English, or a random presentation. You should try all three types to ensure that you really have mastered the vo- cabulary. The test command is very similar to the study option except that VB will not tell you which words you missed until you have completed the entire list. At that point VB will show you which word pairs need further study. D.8 Hints for Using VB 1) Keep your word lists short. 2) Study the word list from French to English and from English to French until you have mastered the list in both directions. 3) Take all three types of tests. If you don't score 100% on all three then you probably need to study some more. 4) Review a list occasionally once you have mastered it. 5) Continue adding to your lists whenever you come across words that you're not familiar with. Keep at it and have fun !!! D.9 Verb Hints Regular verbs may be grouped together in a list in their infinitive form. Irregular verbs, however, may have an entire list, or even two lists, dedicated to a single verb. This way you can study all the different forms the verb can assume. If you include first, second, and third person singular and plural forms of the verb, then a single word list will allow you to include up to four different tenses for a given irregular verb. VOCABULARY BUILDER July 3, 1985 Page 24 The important thing is to realize that VB is merely a tool to help YOU to more easily learn your French vocabulary. If you bring some imagination to the creation of your word lists, you will find it a useful tool! rb Hints Regular verbs ma