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 \begin{abstract}
 
 \noindent
-This document describes the built-in and standard types, exceptions,
-functions and modules that come with the Python system.  It assumes
-basic knowledge about the Python language.  For an informal
-introduction to the language, see the {\em Python Tutorial}.  The {\em
-Python Reference Manual} gives a more formal definition of the
-language.
+Python is an extensible, interpreted, object-oriented programming
+language.  It supports a wide range of applications, from simple text
+processing scripts to interactive WWW browsers.
+
+While the {\em Python Reference Manual} describes the exact syntax and
+semantics of the language, it does not describe the standard library
+that is distributed with the language, and which greatly enhances its
+immediate usability.  This library contains built-in modules (written
+in C) that provide access to system functionality such as file I/O
+that would otherwise be inaccessible to Python programmers, as well as
+modules written in Python that provide standardized solutions for many
+problems that occur in everyday programming.  Some of these modules
+are explicitly designed to encourage and enhance the portability of
+Python programs.
+
+This library reference manual documents Python's standard library, as
+well as many optional library modules (which may or may not be
+available, depending on whether the underlying platform supports them
+and on the configuration choices made at compile time).  It also
+documents the standard types of the language and its built-in
+functions and exceptions, many of which are not or incompletely
+documented in the Reference Manual.
+
+This manual assumes basic knowledge about the Python language.  For an
+informal introduction to Python, see the {\em Python Tutorial}; the
+Python Reference Manual remains the highest authority on syntactic and
+semantic questions.  Finally, the manual entitled {\em Extending and
+Embedding the Python Interpreter} describes how to add new extensions
+to Python and how to embed it in other applications.
 
 \end{abstract}