Chapter 1 of A Double Barrelled Detective Story is here in full — 627 sentences across 126 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
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Chapter I
Chapter 1 of A Double Barrelled Detective Story is here in full — 627 sentences across 126 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Tamp it down! Hold on, hold on! Oh, great Scott! get out of the way!” He snatched the iron and tamped the charge himself, meantime cursing and blaspheming like a fiend. Then he fired the fuse, climbed out of the shaft, and ran fifty yards away, Fetlock following.
Chapter 1 of A Double Barrelled Detective Story is here in full — 627 sentences across 126 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 84/125 · 5 reading units · Lines 416–420
These definitions explain words found in the current reading and keep every example grounded in its original sentence.
Oxford-style entry order: headword, part of speech, US IPA, concise definition, contextual example, and audio.
past form of “climb” — go upward with gradual or continuous progress
From this reading “Then he fired the fuse, climbed out of the shaft, and ran fifty yards away, Fetlock following.”
-ing form of “curse” — utter obscenities or profanities
From this reading “He snatched the iron and tamped the charge himself, meantime cursing and blaspheming like a fiend.”
a cruel wicked and inhuman person
From this reading “He snatched the iron and tamped the charge himself, meantime cursing and blaspheming like a fiend.”
mix together different elements
From this reading “Then he fired the fuse, climbed out of the shaft, and ran fifty yards away, Fetlock following.”
award-winning United States film actor (1928-1999)
From this reading “Oh, great Scott! get out of the way!””
a line that forms the length of an arrow pointer
From this reading “Then he fired the fuse, climbed out of the shaft, and ran fifty yards away, Fetlock following.”
past form of “snatch” — to grasp hastily or eagerly
From this reading “He snatched the iron and tamped the charge himself, meantime cursing and blaspheming like a fiend.”
a tool for tamping (e.g., for tamping tobacco into a pipe bowl or a charge into a drill hole etc.)
From this reading “Tamp it down!”
Every word in these five lines is listed here, and every one of them can be played on its own.
Dictionary details are shown only when verified; these are not licensed Oxford entries.
used before a singular noun to mean one of a group, when it is not a particular one
From this reading He snatched the iron and tamped the charge himself, meantime cursing and blaspheming like a fiend.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading He snatched the iron and tamped the charge himself, meantime cursing and blaspheming like a fiend.
from a particular thing or place or position (“forth” is obsolete)
From this reading Then he fired the fuse, climbed out of the shaft, and ran fifty yards away, Fetlock following.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading He snatched the iron and tamped the charge himself, meantime cursing and blaspheming like a fiend.
to make a rush at or sudden attack upon, as in battle
From this reading He snatched the iron and tamped the charge himself, meantime cursing and blaspheming like a fiend.
past form of “climb” — go upward with gradual or continuous progress
From this reading Then he fired the fuse, climbed out of the shaft, and ran fifty yards away, Fetlock following.
-ing form of “curse” — utter obscenities or profanities
From this reading He snatched the iron and tamped the charge himself, meantime cursing and blaspheming like a fiend.
being or moving lower in position or less in some value
From this reading Tamp it down!
the joint between the cannon bone and the pastern
From this reading Then he fired the fuse, climbed out of the shaft, and ran fifty yards away, Fetlock following.
a cruel wicked and inhuman person
From this reading He snatched the iron and tamped the charge himself, meantime cursing and blaspheming like a fiend.
the cardinal number that is the product of ten and five
From this reading Then he fired the fuse, climbed out of the shaft, and ran fifty yards away, Fetlock following.
having lost your job
From this reading Then he fired the fuse, climbed out of the shaft, and ran fifty yards away, Fetlock following.
about to be mentioned or specified
From this reading Then he fired the fuse, climbed out of the shaft, and ran fifty yards away, Fetlock following.
mix together different elements
From this reading Then he fired the fuse, climbed out of the shaft, and ran fifty yards away, Fetlock following.
come into the possession of something concrete or abstract
From this reading Oh, great Scott! get out of the way!”
relatively large in size or number or extent; larger than others of its kind
From this reading Oh, great Scott! get out of the way!”
a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading He snatched the iron and tamped the charge himself, meantime cursing and blaspheming like a fiend.
used when the man or boy doing the action is also its object
From this reading He snatched the iron and tamped the charge himself, meantime cursing and blaspheming like a fiend.
cause to continue in a certain state, position, or activity; e.g., “keep clean”
From this reading Hold on, hold on!
a heavy ductile magnetic metallic element; is silver-white in pure form but readily rusts; used in construction and tools and armament; plays a role in the transport of oxygen by the blood
From this reading He snatched the iron and tamped the charge himself, meantime cursing and blaspheming like a fiend.
a thing, animal, or idea already mentioned
From this reading Tamp it down!
prefer or wish to do something
From this reading He snatched the iron and tamped the charge himself, meantime cursing and blaspheming like a fiend.
the time between one event, process, or period and another
From this reading He snatched the iron and tamped the charge himself, meantime cursing and blaspheming like a fiend.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading Oh, great Scott! get out of the way!”
a midwestern state in north central United States in the Great Lakes region
From this reading Oh, great Scott! get out of the way!”
touching and supported by a surface
From this reading Hold on, hold on!
not allowed to continue to bat or run
From this reading Oh, great Scott! get out of the way!”
inflected form of “run” — move fast by using one's feet, with one foot off the ground at any given time
From this reading Then he fired the fuse, climbed out of the shaft, and ran fifty yards away, Fetlock following.
award-winning United States film actor (1928-1999)
From this reading Oh, great Scott! get out of the way!”
a line that forms the length of an arrow pointer
From this reading Then he fired the fuse, climbed out of the shaft, and ran fifty yards away, Fetlock following.
past form of “snatch” — to grasp hastily or eagerly
From this reading He snatched the iron and tamped the charge himself, meantime cursing and blaspheming like a fiend.
a tool for tamping (e.g., for tamping tobacco into a pipe bowl or a charge into a drill hole etc.)
From this reading Tamp it down!
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading He snatched the iron and tamped the charge himself, meantime cursing and blaspheming like a fiend.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading Oh, great Scott! get out of the way!”
subsequently or soon afterward (often used as sentence connectors)
From this reading Then he fired the fuse, climbed out of the shaft, and ran fifty yards away, Fetlock following.
how something is done or how it happens
From this reading Oh, great Scott! get out of the way!”
plural of “yard” — a unit of length equal to 3 feet; defined as 91.44 centimeters; originally taken to be the average length of a stride
From this reading Then he fired the fuse, climbed out of the shaft, and ran fifty yards away, Fetlock following.
Chapter 1 of A Double Barrelled Detective Story by Mark Twain holds 627 sentences, grouped into 126 reading sections of at most 5 sentences. The text is the source edition, unabridged, and the chapter records which sentences cover which part of the work so that nothing is dropped. Every word can be tapped for its pronunciation and dictionary entry.
Chapter 1 holds 627 sentences of A Double Barrelled Detective Story, unabridged, divided into 126 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 1 of A Double Barrelled Detective Story by Mark Twain exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 627 sentences, grouped into 126 sections of at most 5 sentences so that a reader can take the chapter in steady, finishable pieces. The chapter also stores a coverage record mapping every one of its sentences to a part of the work, which is how the edition demonstrates that no line was dropped.
Work through the 126 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 126 sections in this chapter is short enough to read once, hear once, and then re-read with the vocabulary in view. Tapping a word plays it alone and opens its dictionary entry with IPA, part of speech and meaning, so the reader is never forced to guess a pronunciation from spelling. Working section by section keeps a long chapter from becoming an undifferentiated wall of text, which is the usual reason a reader abandons a work of this period.
Yes — every sentence and every individual word in chapter 1 can be played aloud in United States English.
Audio covers the whole chapter: any sentence can be played, and any single word within it can be played on its own. The voice uses United States English. For a work of this period that matters, because spelling is an unreliable guide to pronunciation for vocabulary that has fallen out of daily use, and a learner who guesses wrong tends to keep the error. Hearing the word in its own sentence, and then alone, settles it.
Common questions about reading A Double Barrelled Detective Story by Mark Twain on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 1257 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #3180 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #3180, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 104 minutes of reading across 252 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through A Double Barrelled Detective Story section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 2 chapters of A Double Barrelled Detective Story to begin.
Each section holds 5 sentences; read it once through.
Play the section aloud, then tap any unfamiliar word for its entry.
Words and structures a reader meets early in A Double Barrelled Detective Story, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
