Chapter 13 of Life's Handicap is here in full — 400 sentences across 80 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter XIII
Chapter 13 of Life's Handicap is here in full — 400 sentences across 80 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
‘I see nothing except some gray blurs in the pupil. There can be nothing there, you know.’ ‘Even so. Well, let’s think. It’ll take half a day to knock up any sort of coffin; and he must have died at midnight.
Chapter 13 of Life's Handicap is here in full — 400 sentences across 80 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/80 · 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 “blur” — a hazy or indistinct representation
From this reading “‘I see nothing except some gray blurs in the pupil.”
box in which a corpse is buried or cremated
From this reading “It’ll take half a day to knock up any sort of coffin; and he must have died at midnight.”
past form of “die” — pass from physical life and lose all bodily attributes and functions necessary to sustain life
From this reading “It’ll take half a day to knock up any sort of coffin; and he must have died at midnight.”
apart from; not including
From this reading “‘I see nothing except some gray blurs in the pupil.”
a neutral achromatic color midway between white and black
From this reading “‘I see nothing except some gray blurs in the pupil.”
deliver a sharp blow or push
From this reading “It’ll take half a day to knock up any sort of coffin; and he must have died at midnight.”
12 o'clock at night; the middle of the night
From this reading “It’ll take half a day to knock up any sort of coffin; and he must have died at midnight.”
a learner who is enrolled in an educational institution
From this reading “‘I see nothing except some gray blurs in the pupil.”
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 It’ll take half a day to knock up any sort of coffin; and he must have died at midnight.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading It’ll take half a day to knock up any sort of coffin; and he must have died at midnight.
one or some or every or all without specification
From this reading It’ll take half a day to knock up any sort of coffin; and he must have died at midnight.
in or near a particular place or position
From this reading It’ll take half a day to knock up any sort of coffin; and he must have died at midnight.
used with a past participle to form the passive, or with -ing for continuous tenses
From this reading There can be nothing there, you know.’
plural of “blur” — a hazy or indistinct representation
From this reading ‘I see nothing except some gray blurs in the pupil.
to be able to, or to be allowed to
From this reading There can be nothing there, you know.’
box in which a corpse is buried or cremated
From this reading It’ll take half a day to knock up any sort of coffin; and he must have died at midnight.
time for Earth to make a complete rotation on its axis
From this reading It’ll take half a day to knock up any sort of coffin; and he must have died at midnight.
past form of “die” — pass from physical life and lose all bodily attributes and functions necessary to sustain life
From this reading It’ll take half a day to knock up any sort of coffin; and he must have died at midnight.
divisible by two
From this reading ‘Even so.
apart from; not including
From this reading ‘I see nothing except some gray blurs in the pupil.
a neutral achromatic color midway between white and black
From this reading ‘I see nothing except some gray blurs in the pupil.
consisting of one of two equivalent parts in value or quantity
From this reading It’ll take half a day to knock up any sort of coffin; and he must have died at midnight.
used with a past participle to form the perfect tenses
From this reading It’ll take half a day to knock up any sort of coffin; and he must have died at midnight.
a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading It’ll take half a day to knock up any sort of coffin; and he must have died at midnight.
the person speaking or writing, as the subject of the verb
From this reading ‘I see nothing except some gray blurs in the pupil.
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading ‘I see nothing except some gray blurs in the pupil.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading It’ll take half a day to knock up any sort of coffin; and he must have died at midnight.
deliver a sharp blow or push
From this reading It’ll take half a day to knock up any sort of coffin; and he must have died at midnight.
be cognizant or aware of a fact or a specific piece of information; possess knowledge or information about
From this reading There can be nothing there, you know.’
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Well, let’s think.
12 o'clock at night; the middle of the night
From this reading It’ll take half a day to knock up any sort of coffin; and he must have died at midnight.
used to say something is necessary, or almost certainly true
From this reading It’ll take half a day to knock up any sort of coffin; and he must have died at midnight.
not one thing; not anything
From this reading ‘I see nothing except some gray blurs in the pupil.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading It’ll take half a day to knock up any sort of coffin; and he must have died at midnight.
a learner who is enrolled in an educational institution
From this reading ‘I see nothing except some gray blurs in the pupil.
perceive by sight or have the power to perceive by sight
From this reading ‘I see nothing except some gray blurs in the pupil.
for that reason; with the result that
From this reading ‘Even so.
(quantifier) used with either mass nouns or plural count nouns to indicate an unspecified number or quantity
From this reading ‘I see nothing except some gray blurs in the pupil.
a category of things distinguished by some common characteristic or quality
From this reading It’ll take half a day to knock up any sort of coffin; and he must have died at midnight.
carry out
From this reading It’ll take half a day to knock up any sort of coffin; and he must have died at midnight.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading ‘I see nothing except some gray blurs in the pupil.
in or at that place or location
From this reading There can be nothing there, you know.’
judge or regard; look upon; judge
From this reading Well, let’s think.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading It’ll take half a day to knock up any sort of coffin; and he must have died at midnight.
being or moving higher in position or greater in some value; being above a former position or level
From this reading It’ll take half a day to knock up any sort of coffin; and he must have died at midnight.
(often used as a combining form) in a good or proper or satisfactory manner or to a high standard (“good” is a nonstandard dialectal variant for “well”)
From this reading Well, let’s think.
the person or people being spoken to
From this reading There can be nothing there, you know.’
Chapter 13 of Life's Handicap by Rudyard Kipling holds 400 sentences, grouped into 80 reading sections of at most 5 sentences. The text is the public-domain source, 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 13 holds 400 sentences of Life's Handicap, unabridged, divided into 80 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 13 of Life's Handicap by Rudyard Kipling exactly as it stands in the public-domain source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 400 sentences, grouped into 80 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 80 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 80 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 13 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 Life's Handicap by Rudyard Kipling on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 6414 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #5777 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #5777, a public-domain edition. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 534 minutes of reading across 1283 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through Life's Handicap section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 16 chapters of Life's Handicap 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 Life's Handicap, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
