Nowadays reference books have become a problem of great concern for both teachers and students. For example, there are more than ten kinds of reference books available to users of College English. A smarter use of these books is certainly beneficial, but the misuse¹ and overuse of them may cause a tot of problems.

To begin with, they make the students tess attentive² in class. Armed with reference books, many students may think that they know what the teacher is going to talk about. So they may not listen to the teacher in class at all. And they may not have the chance to listen or speak English. As a result, they will neither speak nor understand when they are spoken to. Secondly, some reference books are so filled with mistakes that students may be confused as to the correct term or answer. Third[y, by merely referring to the reference books, the students may be deprived of the ability to work out the solution to the problems themselves. Finally, faced with so many kinds of reference books, the students may feel at a loss which to buy.

I, therefore, suggest that students neither overuse nor misuse the reference books. I also suggest that publishing houses make concerted efforts to publish fewer but better reference books. If both the students and the publishing houses adopt the right attitude toward reference books, they will both benefit a lot from them.