Chapter 13 of A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago is here in full — 403 sentences across 81 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
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Chapter XIII
Chapter 13 of A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago is here in full — 403 sentences across 81 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
"Aw, shut up! Don't bother me." The woman shrugged her shoulders and turned to the child in her arms. "Da-ah-ah, Paula. Mamma feed you right away.
Chapter 13 of A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago is here in full — 403 sentences across 81 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/80 · 5 reading units · Lines 1–5
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.
weapons considered collectively
From this reading “The woman shrugged her shoulders and turned to the child in her arms.”
take the trouble to do something; concern oneself
From this reading “Don't bother me."”
a young person of either sex
From this reading “The woman shrugged her shoulders and turned to the child in her arms.”
provide as food
From this reading “Mamma feed you right away.”
informal terms for a mother
From this reading “Mamma feed you right away.”
plural of “shoulder” — the part of the body between the neck and the upper arm
From this reading “The woman shrugged her shoulders and turned to the child in her arms.”
inflected form of “shrug” — raise one's shoulders to indicate indifference or resignation
From this reading “The woman shrugged her shoulders and turned to the child in her arms.”
move so that an opening or passage is obstructed; make shut
From this reading “"Aw, shut up!”
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 to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading The woman shrugged her shoulders and turned to the child in her arms.
weapons considered collectively
From this reading The woman shrugged her shoulders and turned to the child in her arms.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading "Aw, shut up!
from a particular thing or place or position (“forth” is obsolete)
From this reading Mamma feed you right away.
take the trouble to do something; concern oneself
From this reading Don't bother me."
a young person of either sex
From this reading The woman shrugged her shoulders and turned to the child in her arms.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading "Da-ah-ah, Paula.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Don't bother me."
provide as food
From this reading Mamma feed you right away.
belonging to a woman, girl, or female animal already mentioned
From this reading The woman shrugged her shoulders and turned to the child in her arms.
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading The woman shrugged her shoulders and turned to the child in her arms.
informal terms for a mother
From this reading Mamma feed you right away.
the person speaking, as the object of a verb or preposition
From this reading Don't bother me."
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading "Da-ah-ah, Paula.
precisely, exactly
From this reading Mamma feed you right away.
plural of “shoulder” — the part of the body between the neck and the upper arm
From this reading The woman shrugged her shoulders and turned to the child in her arms.
inflected form of “shrug” — raise one's shoulders to indicate indifference or resignation
From this reading The woman shrugged her shoulders and turned to the child in her arms.
move so that an opening or passage is obstructed; make shut
From this reading "Aw, shut up!
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading The woman shrugged her shoulders and turned to the child in her arms.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading The woman shrugged her shoulders and turned to the child in her arms.
moved around an axis or center
From this reading The woman shrugged her shoulders and turned to the child in her arms.
being or moving higher in position or greater in some value; being above a former position or level
From this reading "Aw, shut up!
an adult female person (as opposed to a man)
From this reading The woman shrugged her shoulders and turned to the child in her arms.
the person or people being spoken to
From this reading Mamma feed you right away.
Chapter 13 of A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago by Ben Hecht holds 403 sentences, grouped into 81 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 13 holds 403 sentences of A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago, unabridged, divided into 81 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 13 of A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago by Ben Hecht exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 403 sentences, grouped into 81 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 81 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 81 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 13 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 Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago by Ben Hecht on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 7032 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #7988 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #7988, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 586 minutes of reading across 1407 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 17 chapters of A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago 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 Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
