Chapter 1 of Peter Merton's private mint is here in full — 394 sentences across 79 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter I
Chapter 1 of Peter Merton's private mint is here in full — 394 sentences across 79 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
_Your name is Merton and you find that all you have to do is reach into your safe to get money. The more you take, the more you find. And just when Quiggs has cut your future down to nothing. A wonderful discovery! Or is it?
Chapter 1 of Peter Merton's private mint is here in full — 394 sentences across 79 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/78 · 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.
separate with or as if with an instrument
From this reading “And just when Quiggs has cut your future down to nothing.”
the act of discovering something
From this reading “A wonderful discovery!”
yet to be or coming
From this reading “And just when Quiggs has cut your future down to nothing.”
United States religious and writer (1915-1968)
From this reading “_Your name is Merton and you find that all you have to do is reach into your safe to get money.”
the most common medium of exchange; functions as legal tender
From this reading “_Your name is Merton and you find that all you have to do is reach into your safe to get money.”
reach a destination, either real or abstract
From this reading “_Your name is Merton and you find that all you have to do is reach into your safe to get money.”
free from danger or the risk of harm
From this reading “_Your name is Merton and you find that all you have to do is reach into your safe to get money.”
extraordinarily good or great; used especially as intensifiers
From this reading “A wonderful discovery!”
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.
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 A wonderful discovery!
(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 _Your name is Merton and you find that all you have to do is reach into your safe to get money.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading _Your name is Merton and you find that all you have to do is reach into your safe to get money.
separate with or as if with an instrument
From this reading And just when Quiggs has cut your future down to nothing.
the act of discovering something
From this reading A wonderful discovery!
used to form questions and negatives, and to give emphasis
From this reading _Your name is Merton and you find that all you have to do is reach into your safe to get money.
being or moving lower in position or less in some value
From this reading And just when Quiggs has cut your future down to nothing.
come upon, as if by accident; meet with
From this reading _Your name is Merton and you find that all you have to do is reach into your safe to get money.
yet to be or coming
From this reading And just when Quiggs has cut your future down to nothing.
come into the possession of something concrete or abstract
From this reading _Your name is Merton and you find that all you have to do is reach into your safe to get money.
the form of “have” used with he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading And just when Quiggs has cut your future down to nothing.
used with a past participle to form the perfect tenses
From this reading _Your name is Merton and you find that all you have to do is reach into your safe to get money.
moving to the inside of something
From this reading _Your name is Merton and you find that all you have to do is reach into your safe to get money.
the form of “be” used with he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading _Your name is Merton and you find that all you have to do is reach into your safe to get money.
a thing, animal, or idea already mentioned
From this reading Or is it?
and nothing more
From this reading And just when Quiggs has cut your future down to nothing.
United States religious and writer (1915-1968)
From this reading _Your name is Merton and you find that all you have to do is reach into your safe to get money.
the most common medium of exchange; functions as legal tender
From this reading _Your name is Merton and you find that all you have to do is reach into your safe to get money.
(comparative of “much” used with mass nouns) a quantifier meaning greater in size or amount or extent or degree
From this reading The more you take, the more you find.
assign a specified (usually proper) proper name to
From this reading _Your name is Merton and you find that all you have to do is reach into your safe to get money.
not one thing; not anything
From this reading And just when Quiggs has cut your future down to nothing.
used to join alternatives or possibilities
From this reading Or is it?
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading And just when Quiggs has cut your future down to nothing.
reach a destination, either real or abstract
From this reading _Your name is Merton and you find that all you have to do is reach into your safe to get money.
free from danger or the risk of harm
From this reading _Your name is Merton and you find that all you have to do is reach into your safe to get money.
carry out
From this reading The more you take, the more you find.
used to introduce what somebody said, thought, or felt
From this reading _Your name is Merton and you find that all you have to do is reach into your safe to get money.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading The more you take, the more you find.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading _Your name is Merton and you find that all you have to do is reach into your safe to get money.
at the time that
From this reading And just when Quiggs has cut your future down to nothing.
extraordinarily good or great; used especially as intensifiers
From this reading A wonderful discovery!
the person or people being spoken to
From this reading _Your name is Merton and you find that all you have to do is reach into your safe to get money.
belonging to the person or people being spoken to
From this reading _Your name is Merton and you find that all you have to do is reach into your safe to get money.
Chapter 1 of Peter Merton's private mint by Harlan Ellison holds 394 sentences, grouped into 79 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 1 holds 394 sentences of Peter Merton's private mint, unabridged, divided into 79 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 1 of Peter Merton's private mint by Harlan Ellison exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 394 sentences, grouped into 79 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 79 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 79 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.
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Words and structures a reader meets early in Peter Merton's private mint, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
