Chapter 12 of Penny Nichols and the Black Imp is here in full — 200 sentences across 40 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter XII
Chapter 12 of Penny Nichols and the Black Imp is here in full — 200 sentences across 40 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
The Missing Workman No sooner had Max Lynch banged out of the office than Penny came hurrying in. "What happened?" she questioned her father. "Nothing. Max just decided to leave." "You must have said something to him," Penny insisted.
Chapter 12 of Penny Nichols and the Black Imp is here in full — 200 sentences across 40 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/40 · 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.
past form of “bang” — strike violently
From this reading “The Missing Workman No sooner had Max Lynch banged out of the office than Penny came hurrying in.”
moving with great haste
From this reading “The Missing Workman No sooner had Max Lynch banged out of the office than Penny came hurrying in.”
kill without legal sanction
From this reading “The Missing Workman No sooner had Max Lynch banged out of the office than Penny came hurrying in.”
street names for gamma hydroxybutyrate
From this reading “The Missing Workman No sooner had Max Lynch banged out of the office than Penny came hurrying in.”
not able to be found
From this reading “The Missing Workman No sooner had Max Lynch banged out of the office than Penny came hurrying in.”
a fractional monetary unit of Ireland and the United Kingdom; equal to one hundredth of a pound
From this reading “The Missing Workman No sooner had Max Lynch banged out of the office than Penny came hurrying in.”
past form of “question” — challenge the accuracy, probity, or propriety of
From this reading “"What happened?" she questioned her father.”
an employee who performs manual or industrial labor
From this reading “The Missing Workman No sooner had Max Lynch banged out of the office than Penny came hurrying in.”
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 “The Missing Workman No sooner had Max Lynch banged out of the office than Penny came hurrying in.”
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.
past form of “bang” — strike violently
From this reading The Missing Workman No sooner had Max Lynch banged out of the office than Penny came hurrying in.
inflected form of “come” — move toward, travel toward something or somebody or approach something or somebody
From this reading The Missing Workman No sooner had Max Lynch banged out of the office than Penny came hurrying in.
recognizable; marked
From this reading Max just decided to leave."
a male parent (also used as a term of address to your father)
From this reading "What happened?" she questioned her father.
the past form of “have”, used to form the past perfect
From this reading The Missing Workman No sooner had Max Lynch banged out of the office than Penny came hurrying in.
past form of “happen” — come to pass
From this reading "What happened?" she questioned her father.
used with a past participle to form the perfect tenses
From this reading "You must have said something to him," Penny insisted.
belonging to a woman, girl, or female animal already mentioned
From this reading "What happened?" she questioned her father.
the male already mentioned, as the object of a verb or preposition
From this reading "You must have said something to him," Penny insisted.
moving with great haste
From this reading The Missing Workman No sooner had Max Lynch banged out of the office than Penny came hurrying in.
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading The Missing Workman No sooner had Max Lynch banged out of the office than Penny came hurrying in.
past form of “insist” — be emphatic or resolute and refuse to budge
From this reading "You must have said something to him," Penny insisted.
and nothing more
From this reading Max just decided to leave."
go away from a place
From this reading Max just decided to leave."
kill without legal sanction
From this reading The Missing Workman No sooner had Max Lynch banged out of the office than Penny came hurrying in.
street names for gamma hydroxybutyrate
From this reading The Missing Workman No sooner had Max Lynch banged out of the office than Penny came hurrying in.
not able to be found
From this reading The Missing Workman No sooner had Max Lynch banged out of the office than Penny came hurrying in.
used to say something is necessary, or almost certainly true
From this reading "You must have said something to him," Penny insisted.
not any; not one
From this reading The Missing Workman No sooner had Max Lynch banged out of the office than Penny came hurrying in.
not one thing; not anything
From this reading "Nothing.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading The Missing Workman No sooner had Max Lynch banged out of the office than Penny came hurrying in.
place of business where professional or clerical duties are performed
From this reading The Missing Workman No sooner had Max Lynch banged out of the office than Penny came hurrying in.
not allowed to continue to bat or run
From this reading The Missing Workman No sooner had Max Lynch banged out of the office than Penny came hurrying in.
a fractional monetary unit of Ireland and the United Kingdom; equal to one hundredth of a pound
From this reading The Missing Workman No sooner had Max Lynch banged out of the office than Penny came hurrying in.
past form of “question” — challenge the accuracy, probity, or propriety of
From this reading "What happened?" she questioned her father.
being the one previously mentioned or spoken of
From this reading "You must have said something to him," Penny insisted.
a woman, girl, or female animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading "What happened?" she questioned her father.
a thing, without saying which
From this reading "You must have said something to him," Penny insisted.
comparatives of “soon” or “early”
From this reading The Missing Workman No sooner had Max Lynch banged out of the office than Penny came hurrying in.
used to introduce the second part of a comparison
From this reading The Missing Workman No sooner had Max Lynch banged out of the office than Penny came hurrying in.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading The Missing Workman No sooner had Max Lynch banged out of the office than Penny came hurrying in.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading Max just decided to leave."
used to ask for information about something
From this reading "What happened?" she questioned her father.
an employee who performs manual or industrial labor
From this reading The Missing Workman No sooner had Max Lynch banged out of the office than Penny came hurrying in.
the person or people being spoken to
From this reading "You must have said something to him," Penny insisted.
Chapter 12 of Penny Nichols and the Black Imp by Joan Clark holds 200 sentences, grouped into 40 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 12 holds 200 sentences of Penny Nichols and the Black Imp, unabridged, divided into 40 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 12 of Penny Nichols and the Black Imp by Joan Clark exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 200 sentences, grouped into 40 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 40 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 40 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 12 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 Penny Nichols and the Black Imp by Joan Clark on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 3573 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #33382 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #33382, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 297 minutes of reading across 715 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through Penny Nichols and the Black Imp section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 20 chapters of Penny Nichols and the Black Imp 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 Penny Nichols and the Black Imp, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
