Chapter 7 of Our Town and Civic Duty is here in full — 233 sentences across 47 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter VII
Chapter 7 of Our Town and Civic Duty is here in full — 233 sentences across 47 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
SAFETY FIRST “The good citizen thinks of Safety First as a patriotic duty.” WHO AM I? I am more powerful than the combined armies of the world. I have destroyed more men than all the wars of the nations. I am more deadly than bullets and I have wrecked more homes than the mightiest of siege guns.
Chapter 7 of Our Town and Civic Duty is here in full — 233 sentences across 47 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/46 · 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 “army” — a permanent organization of the military land forces of a nation or state
From this reading “I am more powerful than the combined armies of the world.”
plural of “bullet” — a projectile that is fired from a gun
From this reading “I am more deadly than bullets and I have wrecked more homes than the mightiest of siege guns.”
made or joined or united into one
From this reading “I am more powerful than the combined armies of the world.”
superlative of “mighty” — having or showing great strength or force or intensity
From this reading “I am more deadly than bullets and I have wrecked more homes than the mightiest of siege guns.”
inspired by love for your country
From this reading “SAFETY FIRST “The good citizen thinks of Safety First as a patriotic duty.””
the action of an armed force that surrounds a fortified place and isolates it while continuing to attack
From this reading “I am more deadly than bullets and I have wrecked more homes than the mightiest of siege guns.”
plural of “war” — the waging of armed conflict against an enemy
From this reading “I have destroyed more men than all the wars of the nations.”
destroyed in an accident
From this reading “I am more deadly than bullets and I have wrecked more homes than the mightiest of siege guns.”
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 “SAFETY FIRST “The good citizen thinks of Safety First as a patriotic duty.””
keep in mind for attention or consideration
In this reading “SAFETY FIRST “The good citizen thinks of Safety First as a patriotic duty.””
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 SAFETY FIRST “The good citizen thinks of Safety First as a patriotic duty.”
(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 I have destroyed more men than all the wars of the nations.
the form of “be” used with “I”
From this reading WHO AM I?
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading I am more deadly than bullets and I have wrecked more homes than the mightiest of siege guns.
plural of “army” — a permanent organization of the military land forces of a nation or state
From this reading I am more powerful than the combined armies of the world.
at the same time that; because; in the way that
From this reading SAFETY FIRST “The good citizen thinks of Safety First as a patriotic duty.”
plural of “bullet” — a projectile that is fired from a gun
From this reading I am more deadly than bullets and I have wrecked more homes than the mightiest of siege guns.
a native or naturalized member of a state or other political community
From this reading SAFETY FIRST “The good citizen thinks of Safety First as a patriotic duty.”
made or joined or united into one
From this reading I am more powerful than the combined armies of the world.
causing or capable of causing death
From this reading I am more deadly than bullets and I have wrecked more homes than the mightiest of siege guns.
spoiled or ruined or demolished
From this reading I have destroyed more men than all the wars of the nations.
the social force that binds you to the courses of action demanded by that force
From this reading SAFETY FIRST “The good citizen thinks of Safety First as a patriotic duty.”
preceding all others in time or space or degree
From this reading SAFETY FIRST “The good citizen thinks of Safety First as a patriotic duty.”
having desirable or positive qualities especially those suitable for a thing specified
From this reading SAFETY FIRST “The good citizen thinks of Safety First as a patriotic duty.”
plural of “gun” — a weapon that discharges a missile at high velocity (especially from a metal tube or barrel)
From this reading I am more deadly than bullets and I have wrecked more homes than the mightiest of siege guns.
used with a past participle to form the perfect tenses
From this reading I have destroyed more men than all the wars of the nations.
plural of “home” — where you live at a particular time
From this reading I am more deadly than bullets and I have wrecked more homes than the mightiest of siege guns.
the person speaking or writing, as the subject of the verb
From this reading WHO AM I?
the force of workers available
From this reading I have destroyed more men than all the wars of the nations.
superlative of “mighty” — having or showing great strength or force or intensity
From this reading I am more deadly than bullets and I have wrecked more homes than the mightiest of siege guns.
(comparative of “much” used with mass nouns) a quantifier meaning greater in size or amount or extent or degree
From this reading I am more powerful than the combined armies of the world.
plural of “nation” — a politically organized body of people under a single government
From this reading I have destroyed more men than all the wars of the nations.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading SAFETY FIRST “The good citizen thinks of Safety First as a patriotic duty.”
inspired by love for your country
From this reading SAFETY FIRST “The good citizen thinks of Safety First as a patriotic duty.”
having great power or force or potency or effect
From this reading I am more powerful than the combined armies of the world.
the state of being certain that adverse effects will not be caused by some agent under defined conditions
From this reading SAFETY FIRST “The good citizen thinks of Safety First as a patriotic duty.”
the action of an armed force that surrounds a fortified place and isolates it while continuing to attack
From this reading I am more deadly than bullets and I have wrecked more homes than the mightiest of siege guns.
used to introduce the second part of a comparison
From this reading I am more powerful than the combined armies of the world.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading SAFETY FIRST “The good citizen thinks of Safety First as a patriotic duty.”
plural of “think” — an instance of deliberate thinking
From this reading SAFETY FIRST “The good citizen thinks of Safety First as a patriotic duty.”
plural of “war” — the waging of armed conflict against an enemy
From this reading I have destroyed more men than all the wars of the nations.
which person or people
From this reading WHO AM I?
everything that exists anywhere
From this reading I am more powerful than the combined armies of the world.
destroyed in an accident
From this reading I am more deadly than bullets and I have wrecked more homes than the mightiest of siege guns.
Chapter 7 of Our Town and Civic Duty by Jane Eayre Fryer holds 233 sentences, grouped into 47 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 7 holds 233 sentences of Our Town and Civic Duty, unabridged, divided into 47 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 7 of Our Town and Civic Duty by Jane Eayre Fryer exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 233 sentences, grouped into 47 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 47 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 47 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 7 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 Our Town and Civic Duty by Jane Eayre Fryer on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 3124 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #55908 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #55908, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 260 minutes of reading across 625 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through Our Town and Civic Duty section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 11 chapters of Our Town and Civic Duty 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 Our Town and Civic Duty, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
