Chapter 1 of Dust of the Desert is here in full — 142 sentences across 29 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter I
Chapter 1 of Dust of the Desert is here in full — 142 sentences across 29 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Roads of men thread the world. They thunder with a life flood. They are vibrant with a pulse of affairs. By land and water and air they link to-day to to-morrow. But El Camino de los Muertos (the Road of the Dead Men) is a dim highway leading nowhere but back and back to forgotten yesterdays.
Chapter 1 of Dust of the Desert is here in full — 142 sentences across 29 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/28 · 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.
a major road for any form of motor transport
From this reading “But El Camino de los Muertos (the Road of the Dead Men) is a dim highway leading nowhere but back and back to forgotten yesterdays.”
make a logical or causal connection
From this reading “By land and water and air they link to-day to to-morrow.”
an insignificant place
From this reading “But El Camino de los Muertos (the Road of the Dead Men) is a dim highway leading nowhere but back and back to forgotten yesterdays.”
(electronics) a sharp transient wave in the normal electrical state (or a series of such transients)
From this reading “They are vibrant with a pulse of affairs.”
a partly sheltered anchorage
From this reading “Roads of men thread the world.”
to move or cause to move in a sinuous, spiral, or circular course
From this reading “Roads of men thread the world.”
vigorous and animated
From this reading “They are vibrant with a pulse of affairs.”
plural of “yesterday” — the day immediately before today
From this reading “But El Camino de los Muertos (the Road of the Dead Men) is a dim highway leading nowhere but back and back to forgotten yesterdays.”
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 “But El Camino de los Muertos (the Road of the Dead Men) is a dim highway leading nowhere but back and back to forgotten yesterdays.”
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 They thunder with a life flood.
matters of personal concern
From this reading They are vibrant with a pulse of affairs.
a mixture of gases (especially oxygen) required for breathing; the stuff that the wind consists of
From this reading By land and water and air they link to-day to to-morrow.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading By land and water and air they link to-day to to-morrow.
the form of “be” used with you, we, they, or a plural noun
From this reading They are vibrant with a pulse of affairs.
in or to or toward a former location
From this reading But El Camino de los Muertos (the Road of the Dead Men) is a dim highway leading nowhere but back and back to forgotten yesterdays.
used to introduce something that contrasts with what came before
From this reading But El Camino de los Muertos (the Road of the Dead Men) is a dim highway leading nowhere but back and back to forgotten yesterdays.
showing who or what does the action
From this reading By land and water and air they link to-day to to-morrow.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading But El Camino de los Muertos (the Road of the Dead Men) is a dim highway leading nowhere but back and back to forgotten yesterdays.
a Mid-Atlantic state; one of the original 13 colonies
From this reading But El Camino de los Muertos (the Road of the Dead Men) is a dim highway leading nowhere but back and back to forgotten yesterdays.
no longer having or seeming to have or expecting to have life
From this reading But El Camino de los Muertos (the Road of the Dead Men) is a dim highway leading nowhere but back and back to forgotten yesterdays.
lacking in light; not bright or harsh
From this reading But El Camino de los Muertos (the Road of the Dead Men) is a dim highway leading nowhere but back and back to forgotten yesterdays.
angular distance above the horizon (especially of a celestial object)
From this reading But El Camino de los Muertos (the Road of the Dead Men) is a dim highway leading nowhere but back and back to forgotten yesterdays.
the rising of a body of water and its overflowing onto normally dry land
From this reading They thunder with a life flood.
Not remembered; lapsed from memory.
From this reading But El Camino de los Muertos (the Road of the Dead Men) is a dim highway leading nowhere but back and back to forgotten yesterdays.
a major road for any form of motor transport
From this reading But El Camino de los Muertos (the Road of the Dead Men) is a dim highway leading nowhere but back and back to forgotten yesterdays.
the form of “be” used with he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading But El Camino de los Muertos (the Road of the Dead Men) is a dim highway leading nowhere but back and back to forgotten yesterdays.
the land on which real estate is located
From this reading By land and water and air they link to-day to to-morrow.
indicating the most important performer or role
From this reading But El Camino de los Muertos (the Road of the Dead Men) is a dim highway leading nowhere but back and back to forgotten yesterdays.
a characteristic state or mode of living
From this reading They thunder with a life flood.
make a logical or causal connection
From this reading By land and water and air they link to-day to to-morrow.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading But El Camino de los Muertos (the Road of the Dead Men) is a dim highway leading nowhere but back and back to forgotten yesterdays.
the force of workers available
From this reading Roads of men thread the world.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading But El Camino de los Muertos (the Road of the Dead Men) is a dim highway leading nowhere but back and back to forgotten yesterdays.
an insignificant place
From this reading But El Camino de los Muertos (the Road of the Dead Men) is a dim highway leading nowhere but back and back to forgotten yesterdays.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading Roads of men thread the world.
(electronics) a sharp transient wave in the normal electrical state (or a series of such transients)
From this reading They are vibrant with a pulse of affairs.
an open way (generally public) for travel or transportation
From this reading But El Camino de los Muertos (the Road of the Dead Men) is a dim highway leading nowhere but back and back to forgotten yesterdays.
a partly sheltered anchorage
From this reading Roads of men thread the world.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading Roads of men thread the world.
the people, animals, or things already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading They thunder with a life flood.
to move or cause to move in a sinuous, spiral, or circular course
From this reading Roads of men thread the world.
move fast, noisily, and heavily
From this reading They thunder with a life flood.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading By land and water and air they link to-day to to-morrow.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading By land and water and air they link to-day to to-morrow.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading By land and water and air they link to-day to to-morrow.
vigorous and animated
From this reading They are vibrant with a pulse of affairs.
binary compound that occurs at room temperature as a clear colorless odorless tasteless liquid; freezes into ice below 0 degrees centigrade and boils above 100 degrees centigrade; widely used as a solvent
From this reading By land and water and air they link to-day to to-morrow.
in the company of; together with
From this reading They thunder with a life flood.
everything that exists anywhere
From this reading Roads of men thread the world.
plural of “yesterday” — the day immediately before today
From this reading But El Camino de los Muertos (the Road of the Dead Men) is a dim highway leading nowhere but back and back to forgotten yesterdays.
Chapter 1 of Dust of the Desert by Robert Welles Ritchie holds 142 sentences, grouped into 29 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 142 sentences of Dust of the Desert, unabridged, divided into 29 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 1 of Dust of the Desert by Robert Welles Ritchie exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 142 sentences, grouped into 29 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 29 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 29 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 Dust of the Desert by Robert Welles Ritchie on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 3249 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #44691 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #44691, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 270 minutes of reading across 650 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through Dust of the Desert section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 26 chapters of Dust of the Desert 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 Dust of the Desert, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
