Chapter 12 of Diana is here in full — 166 sentences across 34 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter XII
Chapter 12 of Diana is here in full — 166 sentences across 34 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
THE ASHES OF THE FIRE. Diana sat down with her face in her hands, and was still. She felt like a person stunned. It was very still all around her. The fire gently breathed and snapped; the living presence that had been there was gone.
Chapter 12 of Diana is here in full — 166 sentences across 34 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/33 · 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.
The powdery residue left after the burning of a substance.
From this reading “THE ASHES OF THE FIRE.”
uttered without voice
From this reading “The fire gently breathed and snapped; the living presence that had been there was gone.”
English aristocrat who was the first wife of Prince Charles; her death in an automobile accident in Paris produced intense national mourning (1961-1997)
From this reading “Diana sat down with her face in her hands, and was still.”
in a gradual manner
From this reading “The fire gently breathed and snapped; the living presence that had been there was gone.”
the experience of being alive; the course of human events and activities
From this reading “The fire gently breathed and snapped; the living presence that had been there was gone.”
the state of being present; current existence
From this reading “The fire gently breathed and snapped; the living presence that had been there was gone.”
inflected form of “snap” — utter in an angry, sharp, or abrupt tone
From this reading “The fire gently breathed and snapped; the living presence that had been there was gone.”
filled with the emotional impact of overwhelming surprise or shock
From this reading “She felt like a person stunned.”
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 She felt like a person stunned.
(quantifier) used with either mass or count nouns to indicate the whole number or amount of or every one of a class
From this reading It was very still all around her.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading Diana sat down with her face in her hands, and was still.
surrounding, or on every side of, something
From this reading It was very still all around her.
The powdery residue left after the burning of a substance.
From this reading THE ASHES OF THE FIRE.
the past participle of “be”
From this reading The fire gently breathed and snapped; the living presence that had been there was gone.
uttered without voice
From this reading The fire gently breathed and snapped; the living presence that had been there was gone.
English aristocrat who was the first wife of Prince Charles; her death in an automobile accident in Paris produced intense national mourning (1961-1997)
From this reading Diana sat down with her face in her hands, and was still.
being or moving lower in position or less in some value
From this reading Diana sat down with her face in her hands, and was still.
the front of the human head from the forehead to the chin and ear to ear
From this reading Diana sat down with her face in her hands, and was still.
mat together and make felt-like
From this reading She felt like a person stunned.
start firing a weapon
From this reading THE ASHES OF THE FIRE.
in a gradual manner
From this reading The fire gently breathed and snapped; the living presence that had been there was gone.
destroyed or killed
From this reading The fire gently breathed and snapped; the living presence that had been there was gone.
the past form of “have”, used to form the past perfect
From this reading The fire gently breathed and snapped; the living presence that had been there was gone.
(with “in”) guardianship over; in divorce cases it is the right to house and care for and discipline a child
From this reading Diana sat down with her face in her hands, and was still.
belonging to a woman, girl, or female animal already mentioned
From this reading Diana sat down with her face in her hands, and was still.
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading Diana sat down with her face in her hands, and was still.
a thing, animal, or idea already mentioned
From this reading It was very still all around her.
prefer or wish to do something
From this reading She felt like a person stunned.
the experience of being alive; the course of human events and activities
From this reading The fire gently breathed and snapped; the living presence that had been there was gone.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading THE ASHES OF THE FIRE.
a human being
From this reading She felt like a person stunned.
the state of being present; current existence
From this reading The fire gently breathed and snapped; the living presence that had been there was gone.
the seventh and last day of the week; observed as the Sabbath by Jews and some Christians
From this reading Diana sat down with her face in her hands, and was still.
a woman, girl, or female animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading She felt like a person stunned.
inflected form of “snap” — utter in an angry, sharp, or abrupt tone
From this reading The fire gently breathed and snapped; the living presence that had been there was gone.
not in physical motion
From this reading Diana sat down with her face in her hands, and was still.
filled with the emotional impact of overwhelming surprise or shock
From this reading She felt like a person stunned.
used to introduce what somebody said, thought, or felt
From this reading The fire gently breathed and snapped; the living presence that had been there was gone.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading THE ASHES OF THE FIRE.
in or at that place or location
From this reading The fire gently breathed and snapped; the living presence that had been there was gone.
precisely as stated
From this reading It was very still all around her.
the past form of “be” used with I, he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading Diana sat down with her face in her hands, and was still.
in the company of; together with
From this reading Diana sat down with her face in her hands, and was still.
Chapter 12 of Diana by Susan Warner holds 166 sentences, grouped into 34 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 12 holds 166 sentences of Diana, unabridged, divided into 34 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 12 of Diana by Susan Warner exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 166 sentences, grouped into 34 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 34 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 34 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 12 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 Diana by Susan Warner on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 9055 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #29824 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #29824, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 600 minutes of reading across 1811 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through Diana section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 36 chapters of Diana 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 Diana, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
