Chapter 4 of Captain John's Adventures is here in full — 28 sentences across 6 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter IV
Chapter 4 of Captain John's Adventures is here in full — 28 sentences across 6 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
BE YE KIND-HEARTED. ‘I went first,’ said Mrs Leddam, ‘to the houses where I supposed rich people lived.’ ‘There’s handsome houses in that wide street,’ interrupted John. ‘I saw, through the windows, pictures hanging on the walls, and such beautiful curtains! Did you go to them?’
Chapter 4 of Captain John's Adventures is here in full — 28 sentences across 6 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/5 · 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.
plural of “curtain” — hanging cloth used as a blind (especially for a window)
From this reading “‘I saw, through the windows, pictures hanging on the walls, and such beautiful curtains!”
pleasing in appearance especially by reason of conformity to ideals of form and proportion
From this reading “‘There’s handsome houses in that wide street,’ interrupted John.”
decoration that is hung (as a tapestry) on a wall or over a window
From this reading “‘I saw, through the windows, pictures hanging on the walls, and such beautiful curtains!”
plural of “house” — a dwelling that serves as living quarters for one or more families
From this reading “‘I went first,’ said Mrs Leddam, ‘to the houses where I supposed rich people lived.’”
discontinued temporarily
From this reading “‘There’s handsome houses in that wide street,’ interrupted John.”
plural of “picture” — a visual representation (of an object or scene or person or abstraction) produced on a surface
From this reading “‘I saw, through the windows, pictures hanging on the walls, and such beautiful curtains!”
required or under orders
From this reading “‘I went first,’ said Mrs Leddam, ‘to the houses where I supposed rich people lived.’”
(trademark) an operating system with a graphical user interface
From this reading “‘I saw, through the windows, pictures hanging on the walls, and such beautiful curtains!”
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.
In this reading “‘I saw, through the windows, pictures hanging on the walls, and such beautiful curtains!”
In this reading “‘There’s handsome houses in that wide street,’ interrupted John.”
people who have possessions and wealth (considered as a group)
In this reading “‘I went first,’ said Mrs Leddam, ‘to the houses where I supposed rich people lived.’”
In this reading “‘I saw, through the windows, pictures hanging on the walls, and such beautiful curtains!”
In this reading “‘There’s handsome houses in that wide street,’ interrupted John.”
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 ‘I saw, through the windows, pictures hanging on the walls, and such beautiful curtains!
used with a past participle to form the passive, or with -ing for continuous tenses
From this reading BE YE KIND-HEARTED.
delighting the senses or exciting intellectual or emotional admiration
From this reading ‘I saw, through the windows, pictures hanging on the walls, and such beautiful curtains!
plural of “curtain” — hanging cloth used as a blind (especially for a window)
From this reading ‘I saw, through the windows, pictures hanging on the walls, and such beautiful curtains!
the past form of “do”, used in questions and negatives
From this reading Did you go to them?’
preceding all others in time or space or degree
From this reading ‘I went first,’ said Mrs Leddam, ‘to the houses where I supposed rich people lived.’
change location; move, travel, or proceed, also metaphorically
From this reading Did you go to them?’
pleasing in appearance especially by reason of conformity to ideals of form and proportion
From this reading ‘There’s handsome houses in that wide street,’ interrupted John.
decoration that is hung (as a tapestry) on a wall or over a window
From this reading ‘I saw, through the windows, pictures hanging on the walls, and such beautiful curtains!
plural of “house” — a dwelling that serves as living quarters for one or more families
From this reading ‘I went first,’ said Mrs Leddam, ‘to the houses where I supposed rich people lived.’
the person speaking or writing, as the subject of the verb
From this reading ‘I went first,’ said Mrs Leddam, ‘to the houses where I supposed rich people lived.’
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading ‘There’s handsome houses in that wide street,’ interrupted John.
discontinued temporarily
From this reading ‘There’s handsome houses in that wide street,’ interrupted John.
a room or building equipped with one or more toilets
From this reading ‘There’s handsome houses in that wide street,’ interrupted John.
having or proceeding from an innately kind disposition
From this reading BE YE KIND-HEARTED.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading ‘I went first,’ said Mrs Leddam, ‘to the houses where I supposed rich people lived.’
past form of “live” — be an inhabitant of or reside in
From this reading ‘I went first,’ said Mrs Leddam, ‘to the houses where I supposed rich people lived.’
a form of address for a married woman
From this reading ‘I went first,’ said Mrs Leddam, ‘to the houses where I supposed rich people lived.’
touching and supported by a surface
From this reading ‘I saw, through the windows, pictures hanging on the walls, and such beautiful curtains!
(plural) any group of human beings (men or women or children) collectively
From this reading ‘I went first,’ said Mrs Leddam, ‘to the houses where I supposed rich people lived.’
plural of “picture” — a visual representation (of an object or scene or person or abstraction) produced on a surface
From this reading ‘I saw, through the windows, pictures hanging on the walls, and such beautiful curtains!
possessing material wealth
From this reading ‘I went first,’ said Mrs Leddam, ‘to the houses where I supposed rich people lived.’
being the one previously mentioned or spoken of
From this reading ‘I went first,’ said Mrs Leddam, ‘to the houses where I supposed rich people lived.’
cut with a saw
From this reading ‘I saw, through the windows, pictures hanging on the walls, and such beautiful curtains!
a thoroughfare (usually including sidewalks) that is lined with buildings
From this reading ‘There’s handsome houses in that wide street,’ interrupted John.
of the kind already mentioned
From this reading ‘I saw, through the windows, pictures hanging on the walls, and such beautiful curtains!
required or under orders
From this reading ‘I went first,’ said Mrs Leddam, ‘to the houses where I supposed rich people lived.’
used to introduce what somebody said, thought, or felt
From this reading ‘There’s handsome houses in that wide street,’ interrupted John.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading ‘I went first,’ said Mrs Leddam, ‘to the houses where I supposed rich people lived.’
the people or things already mentioned, as the object
From this reading Did you go to them?’
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading ‘There’s handsome houses in that wide street,’ interrupted John.
from one end or side of something to the other
From this reading ‘I saw, through the windows, pictures hanging on the walls, and such beautiful curtains!
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading ‘I went first,’ said Mrs Leddam, ‘to the houses where I supposed rich people lived.’
plural of “wall” — an architectural partition with a height and length greater than its thickness; used to divide or enclose an area or to support another structure
From this reading ‘I saw, through the windows, pictures hanging on the walls, and such beautiful curtains!
inflected form of “go” — change location; move, travel, or proceed, also metaphorically
From this reading ‘I went first,’ said Mrs Leddam, ‘to the houses where I supposed rich people lived.’
in or at the place that
From this reading ‘I went first,’ said Mrs Leddam, ‘to the houses where I supposed rich people lived.’
having great (or a certain) extent from one side to the other
From this reading ‘There’s handsome houses in that wide street,’ interrupted John.
(trademark) an operating system with a graphical user interface
From this reading ‘I saw, through the windows, pictures hanging on the walls, and such beautiful curtains!
an old word for “you”, speaking to more than one person
From this reading BE YE KIND-HEARTED.
the person or people being spoken to
From this reading Did you go to them?’
Chapter 4 of Captain John's Adventures by Anonymous holds 28 sentences, grouped into 6 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 28 sentences of Captain John's Adventures, unabridged, divided into 6 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 4 of Captain John's Adventures by Anonymous exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 28 sentences, grouped into 6 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 6 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 6 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 Captain John's Adventures by Anonymous on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 415 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #58262 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #58262, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 34 minutes of reading across 83 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through Captain John's Adventures section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 10 chapters of Captain John's Adventures 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 Captain John's Adventures, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
