1-forms

Can anyone give me a somewhat simplistic explanation of 1-forms?  For some reason I'm really stuck on this, I understand that they're a linear transformation mapping point and a vector to R.  (I'm guessing they actually map to all of C but for sake of learning I'd appreciate it simplified as my understanding of complex analysis is virtually nonexistant at this point in time.)  I don't even understand their purpose, except that a differential is a type of 1-form.  The wikipedia article was a bit over my head & the wolfram article wasn't much help either.

>>4
Long explanation: Take differential geometry
Short explanation: A differential 0-form is simply a function of n variables. A differential 1-form is f1*dx1 + f2*dx2 + ... + fn*dxn, where f1, f2, ... fn are functions of n variables. A 2-form has dxi^dxj (1 <= i < j <= n) as the basis and, once again, functions of n variables as the coefficients. And so on.