Chapter 4 of A Town Is Drowning is here in full — 434 sentences across 87 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter IV
Chapter 4 of A Town Is Drowning is here in full — 434 sentences across 87 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Two more to come. Two. More. Some fool was striking a light, a blue-green light to blow them to hell. But no; it was his eyes, glazed and burning, that made the light.
Chapter 4 of A Town Is Drowning is here in full — 434 sentences across 87 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/86 · 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.
exhale hard
From this reading “Some fool was striking a light, a blue-green light to blow them to hell.”
the act of burning something
From this reading “But no; it was his eyes, glazed and burning, that made the light.”
opinion or judgment
From this reading “But no; it was his eyes, glazed and burning, that made the light.”
a person who lacks good judgment
From this reading “Some fool was striking a light, a blue-green light to blow them to hell.”
(used of eyes) lacking liveliness
From this reading “But no; it was his eyes, glazed and burning, that made the light.”
any place of pain and turmoil
From this reading “Some fool was striking a light, a blue-green light to blow them to hell.”
of comparatively little physical weight or density
From this reading “Some fool was striking a light, a blue-green light to blow them to hell.”
sensational in appearance or thrilling in effect
From this reading “Some fool was striking a light, a blue-green light to blow them to hell.”
English keeps certain words together, and knowing the pair is worth more than knowing each word alone. Every partnership below was counted across our whole published library, and earns its place by appearing far more often than two unrelated words of the same frequency would.
Shown as this reading writes them, with the form the library counts, what kind of pairing it is, and how often it occurs.
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 Some fool was striking a light, a blue-green light to blow them to hell.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading But no; it was his eyes, glazed and burning, that made the light.
exhale hard
From this reading Some fool was striking a light, a blue-green light to blow them to hell.
of a bluish shade of green
From this reading Some fool was striking a light, a blue-green light to blow them to hell.
the act of burning something
From this reading But no; it was his eyes, glazed and burning, that made the light.
used to introduce something that contrasts with what came before
From this reading But no; it was his eyes, glazed and burning, that made the light.
move toward, travel toward something or somebody or approach something or somebody
From this reading Two more to come.
opinion or judgment
From this reading But no; it was his eyes, glazed and burning, that made the light.
a person who lacks good judgment
From this reading Some fool was striking a light, a blue-green light to blow them to hell.
(used of eyes) lacking liveliness
From this reading But no; it was his eyes, glazed and burning, that made the light.
any place of pain and turmoil
From this reading Some fool was striking a light, a blue-green light to blow them to hell.
belonging to a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned
From this reading But no; it was his eyes, glazed and burning, that made the light.
a thing, animal, or idea already mentioned
From this reading But no; it was his eyes, glazed and burning, that made the light.
of comparatively little physical weight or density
From this reading Some fool was striking a light, a blue-green light to blow them to hell.
produced by a manufacturing process
From this reading But no; it was his eyes, glazed and burning, that made the light.
(comparative of “much” used with mass nouns) a quantifier meaning greater in size or amount or extent or degree
From this reading Two more to come.
not any; not one
From this reading But no; it was his eyes, glazed and burning, that made the light.
(quantifier) used with either mass nouns or plural count nouns to indicate an unspecified number or quantity
From this reading Some fool was striking a light, a blue-green light to blow them to hell.
sensational in appearance or thrilling in effect
From this reading Some fool was striking a light, a blue-green light to blow them to hell.
used to introduce what somebody said, thought, or felt
From this reading But no; it was his eyes, glazed and burning, that made the light.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading But no; it was his eyes, glazed and burning, that made the light.
the people or things already mentioned, as the object
From this reading Some fool was striking a light, a blue-green light to blow them to hell.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading Two more to come.
the cardinal number that is the sum of one and one or a numeral representing this number
From this reading Two more to come.
the past form of “be” used with I, he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading Some fool was striking a light, a blue-green light to blow them to hell.
Chapter 4 of A Town Is Drowning by Frederik Pohl holds 434 sentences, grouped into 87 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 4 holds 434 sentences of A Town Is Drowning, unabridged, divided into 87 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 4 of A Town Is Drowning by Frederik Pohl exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 434 sentences, grouped into 87 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 87 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 87 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 4 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 Town Is Drowning by Frederik Pohl on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 3893 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #66768 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #66768, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 324 minutes of reading across 779 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through A Town Is Drowning section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 9 chapters of A Town Is Drowning 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 Town Is Drowning, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
