Chapter 1 of Original Short Stories — Volume 10 is here in full — 182 sentences across 37 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter I
Chapter 1 of Original Short Stories — Volume 10 is here in full — 182 sentences across 37 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
VOLUME X. “Well doctor, a little brandy?” “With pleasure.” The old ship's surgeon, holding out his glass, watched it as it slowly filled with the golden liquid. Then, holding it in front of his eyes, he let the light from the lamp stream through it, smelled it, tasted a few drops and smacked his lips with relish.
Chapter 1 of Original Short Stories — Volume 10 is here in full — 182 sentences across 37 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/36 · 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.
distilled from wine or fermented fruit juice
From this reading ““Well doctor, a little brandy?””
existing as or having characteristics of a liquid; especially tending to flow
From this reading “The old ship's surgeon, holding out his glass, watched it as it slowly filled with the golden liquid.”
vigorous and enthusiastic enjoyment
From this reading “Then, holding it in front of his eyes, he let the light from the lamp stream through it, smelled it, tasted a few drops and smacked his lips with relish.”
possessive form of “ship” — a vessel that carries passengers or freight
From this reading “The old ship's surgeon, holding out his glass, watched it as it slowly filled with the golden liquid.”
past form of “smack” — deliver a hard blow to
From this reading “Then, holding it in front of his eyes, he let the light from the lamp stream through it, smelled it, tasted a few drops and smacked his lips with relish.”
past form of “smell” — inhale the odor of; perceive by the olfactory sense
From this reading “Then, holding it in front of his eyes, he let the light from the lamp stream through it, smelled it, tasted a few drops and smacked his lips with relish.”
a physician who specializes in surgery
From this reading “The old ship's surgeon, holding out his glass, watched it as it slowly filled with the golden liquid.”
past form of “taste” — have flavor; taste of something
From this reading “Then, holding it in front of his eyes, he let the light from the lamp stream through it, smelled it, tasted a few drops and smacked his lips with relish.”
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 “Well doctor, a little brandy?”
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading Then, holding it in front of his eyes, he let the light from the lamp stream through it, smelled it, tasted a few drops and smacked his lips with relish.
at the same time that; because; in the way that
From this reading The old ship's surgeon, holding out his glass, watched it as it slowly filled with the golden liquid.
distilled from wine or fermented fruit juice
From this reading “Well doctor, a little brandy?”
a licensed medical practitioner
From this reading “Well doctor, a little brandy?”
plural of “drop” — a shape that is spherical and small
From this reading Then, holding it in front of his eyes, he let the light from the lamp stream through it, smelled it, tasted a few drops and smacked his lips with relish.
opinion or judgment
From this reading Then, holding it in front of his eyes, he let the light from the lamp stream through it, smelled it, tasted a few drops and smacked his lips with relish.
a quantifier that can be used with count nouns and is often preceded by “a”; a small but indefinite number
From this reading Then, holding it in front of his eyes, he let the light from the lamp stream through it, smelled it, tasted a few drops and smacked his lips with relish.
(usually followed by “with” or used as a combining form) generously supplied with
From this reading The old ship's surgeon, holding out his glass, watched it as it slowly filled with the golden liquid.
showing where something starts, or who sent it
From this reading Then, holding it in front of his eyes, he let the light from the lamp stream through it, smelled it, tasted a few drops and smacked his lips with relish.
the side that is forward or prominent
From this reading Then, holding it in front of his eyes, he let the light from the lamp stream through it, smelled it, tasted a few drops and smacked his lips with relish.
a brittle transparent solid with irregular atomic structure
From this reading The old ship's surgeon, holding out his glass, watched it as it slowly filled with the golden liquid.
having the deep slightly brownish color of gold
From this reading The old ship's surgeon, holding out his glass, watched it as it slowly filled with the golden liquid.
a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading Then, holding it in front of his eyes, he let the light from the lamp stream through it, smelled it, tasted a few drops and smacked his lips with relish.
belonging to a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned
From this reading The old ship's surgeon, holding out his glass, watched it as it slowly filled with the golden liquid.
the act of retaining something
From this reading The old ship's surgeon, holding out his glass, watched it as it slowly filled with the golden liquid.
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading Then, holding it in front of his eyes, he let the light from the lamp stream through it, smelled it, tasted a few drops and smacked his lips with relish.
a thing, animal, or idea already mentioned
From this reading The old ship's surgeon, holding out his glass, watched it as it slowly filled with the golden liquid.
an artificial source of visible illumination
From this reading Then, holding it in front of his eyes, he let the light from the lamp stream through it, smelled it, tasted a few drops and smacked his lips with relish.
used to make a suggestion or a command including the speaker
From this reading Then, holding it in front of his eyes, he let the light from the lamp stream through it, smelled it, tasted a few drops and smacked his lips with relish.
of comparatively little physical weight or density
From this reading Then, holding it in front of his eyes, he let the light from the lamp stream through it, smelled it, tasted a few drops and smacked his lips with relish.
plural of “lip” — either of two fleshy folds of tissue that surround the mouth and play a role in speaking
From this reading Then, holding it in front of his eyes, he let the light from the lamp stream through it, smelled it, tasted a few drops and smacked his lips with relish.
existing as or having characteristics of a liquid; especially tending to flow
From this reading The old ship's surgeon, holding out his glass, watched it as it slowly filled with the golden liquid.
limited or below average in number or quantity or magnitude or extent
From this reading “Well doctor, a little brandy?”
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading Then, holding it in front of his eyes, he let the light from the lamp stream through it, smelled it, tasted a few drops and smacked his lips with relish.
(used especially of persons) having lived for a relatively long time or attained a specific age
From this reading The old ship's surgeon, holding out his glass, watched it as it slowly filled with the golden liquid.
not allowed to continue to bat or run
From this reading The old ship's surgeon, holding out his glass, watched it as it slowly filled with the golden liquid.
a fundamental feeling that is hard to define but that people desire to experience
From this reading “With pleasure.”
vigorous and enthusiastic enjoyment
From this reading Then, holding it in front of his eyes, he let the light from the lamp stream through it, smelled it, tasted a few drops and smacked his lips with relish.
possessive form of “ship” — a vessel that carries passengers or freight
From this reading The old ship's surgeon, holding out his glass, watched it as it slowly filled with the golden liquid.
without speed (“slow” is sometimes used informally for “slowly”)
From this reading The old ship's surgeon, holding out his glass, watched it as it slowly filled with the golden liquid.
past form of “smack” — deliver a hard blow to
From this reading Then, holding it in front of his eyes, he let the light from the lamp stream through it, smelled it, tasted a few drops and smacked his lips with relish.
past form of “smell” — inhale the odor of; perceive by the olfactory sense
From this reading Then, holding it in front of his eyes, he let the light from the lamp stream through it, smelled it, tasted a few drops and smacked his lips with relish.
a natural body of running water flowing on or under the earth
From this reading Then, holding it in front of his eyes, he let the light from the lamp stream through it, smelled it, tasted a few drops and smacked his lips with relish.
a physician who specializes in surgery
From this reading The old ship's surgeon, holding out his glass, watched it as it slowly filled with the golden liquid.
past form of “taste” — have flavor; taste of something
From this reading Then, holding it in front of his eyes, he let the light from the lamp stream through it, smelled it, tasted a few drops and smacked his lips with relish.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading The old ship's surgeon, holding out his glass, watched it as it slowly filled with the golden liquid.
subsequently or soon afterward (often used as sentence connectors)
From this reading Then, holding it in front of his eyes, he let the light from the lamp stream through it, smelled it, tasted a few drops and smacked his lips with relish.
from one end or side of something to the other
From this reading Then, holding it in front of his eyes, he let the light from the lamp stream through it, smelled it, tasted a few drops and smacked his lips with relish.
the amount of 3-dimensional space occupied by an object
From this reading VOLUME X.
past form of “watch” — look attentively
From this reading The old ship's surgeon, holding out his glass, watched it as it slowly filled with the golden liquid.
(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 doctor, a little brandy?”
in the company of; together with
From this reading “With pleasure.”
the cardinal number that is the sum of nine and one; the base of the decimal system
From this reading VOLUME X.
Chapter 1 of Original Short Stories — Volume 10 by Guy de Maupassant holds 182 sentences, grouped into 37 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 1 holds 182 sentences of Original Short Stories — Volume 10, unabridged, divided into 37 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 1 of Original Short Stories — Volume 10 by Guy de Maupassant exactly as it stands in the public-domain source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 182 sentences, grouped into 37 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 37 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 37 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 Original Short Stories — Volume 10 by Guy de Maupassant on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 1918 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #3086 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #3086, a public-domain edition. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 159 minutes of reading across 384 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through Original Short Stories — Volume 10 section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 10 chapters of Original Short Stories — Volume 10 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 Original Short Stories — Volume 10, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
