Chapter 5 of In My Nursery is here in full — 350 sentences across 70 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter V
Chapter 5 of In My Nursery is here in full — 350 sentences across 70 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
WHAT A VERY RUDE LITTLE BIRD SAID TO JOHNNY THIS MORNING. Thing with two legs, out on the lawn! Stupid old thing! Why don't you fly, or hop at least? Why don't you sing?
Chapter 5 of In My Nursery is here in full — 350 sentences across 70 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/70 · 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.
warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrates characterized by feathers and forelimbs modified as wings
From this reading “WHAT A VERY RUDE LITTLE BIRD SAID TO JOHNNY THIS MORNING.”
travel through the air; be airborne
From this reading “Why don't you fly, or hop at least?”
jump lightly
From this reading “Why don't you fly, or hop at least?”
“Johnny” was applied as a nickname for Confederate soldiers by the Federal soldiers in the American Civil War; “greyback” derived from their grey Confederate uniforms
From this reading “WHAT A VERY RUDE LITTLE BIRD SAID TO JOHNNY THIS MORNING.”
a field of cultivated and mowed grass
From this reading “Thing with two legs, out on the lawn!”
socially incorrect in behavior
From this reading “WHAT A VERY RUDE LITTLE BIRD SAID TO JOHNNY THIS MORNING.”
deliver by singing
From this reading “Why don't you sing?”
lacking or marked by lack of intellectual acuity
From this reading “Stupid old thing!”
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 “Thing with two legs, out on the lawn!”
In this reading “WHAT A VERY RUDE LITTLE BIRD SAID TO JOHNNY THIS MORNING.”
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 WHAT A VERY RUDE LITTLE BIRD SAID TO JOHNNY THIS MORNING.
in or near a particular place or position
From this reading Why don't you fly, or hop at least?
warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrates characterized by feathers and forelimbs modified as wings
From this reading WHAT A VERY RUDE LITTLE BIRD SAID TO JOHNNY THIS MORNING.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Why don't you fly, or hop at least?
travel through the air; be airborne
From this reading Why don't you fly, or hop at least?
jump lightly
From this reading Why don't you fly, or hop at least?
“Johnny” was applied as a nickname for Confederate soldiers by the Federal soldiers in the American Civil War; “greyback” derived from their grey Confederate uniforms
From this reading WHAT A VERY RUDE LITTLE BIRD SAID TO JOHNNY THIS MORNING.
a field of cultivated and mowed grass
From this reading Thing with two legs, out on the lawn!
the superlative of “little” that can be used with mass nouns and is usually preceded by “the”; a quantifier meaning smallest in amount or extent or degree
From this reading Why don't you fly, or hop at least?
staying power
From this reading Thing with two legs, out on the lawn!
limited or below average in number or quantity or magnitude or extent
From this reading WHAT A VERY RUDE LITTLE BIRD SAID TO JOHNNY THIS MORNING.
the time period between dawn and noon
From this reading WHAT A VERY RUDE LITTLE BIRD SAID TO JOHNNY THIS MORNING.
(used especially of persons) having lived for a relatively long time or attained a specific age
From this reading Stupid old thing!
touching and supported by a surface
From this reading Thing with two legs, out on the lawn!
used to join alternatives or possibilities
From this reading Why don't you fly, or hop at least?
not allowed to continue to bat or run
From this reading Thing with two legs, out on the lawn!
socially incorrect in behavior
From this reading WHAT A VERY RUDE LITTLE BIRD SAID TO JOHNNY THIS MORNING.
being the one previously mentioned or spoken of
From this reading WHAT A VERY RUDE LITTLE BIRD SAID TO JOHNNY THIS MORNING.
deliver by singing
From this reading Why don't you sing?
lacking or marked by lack of intellectual acuity
From this reading Stupid old thing!
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading Thing with two legs, out on the lawn!
a special situation
From this reading Thing with two legs, out on the lawn!
used for a person or thing that is near, or that has just been mentioned
From this reading WHAT A VERY RUDE LITTLE BIRD SAID TO JOHNNY THIS MORNING.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading WHAT A VERY RUDE LITTLE BIRD SAID TO JOHNNY THIS MORNING.
the cardinal number that is the sum of one and one or a numeral representing this number
From this reading Thing with two legs, out on the lawn!
precisely as stated
From this reading WHAT A VERY RUDE LITTLE BIRD SAID TO JOHNNY THIS MORNING.
used to ask for information about something
From this reading WHAT A VERY RUDE LITTLE BIRD SAID TO JOHNNY THIS MORNING.
the cause or intention underlying an action or situation, especially in the phrase “the whys and wherefores”
From this reading Why don't you fly, or hop at least?
in the company of; together with
From this reading Thing with two legs, out on the lawn!
the person or people being spoken to
From this reading Why don't you fly, or hop at least?
Chapter 5 of In My Nursery by Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards holds 350 sentences, grouped into 70 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 5 holds 350 sentences of In My Nursery, unabridged, divided into 70 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 5 of In My Nursery by Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 350 sentences, grouped into 70 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 70 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 70 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 5 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 In My Nursery by Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 2044 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #39741 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #39741, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 170 minutes of reading across 409 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through In My Nursery section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 6 chapters of In My Nursery 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 In My Nursery, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
