Chapter 1 of Picture Bride is here in full — 155 sentences across 31 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter I
Chapter 1 of Picture Bride is here in full — 155 sentences across 31 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
As pretty as a picture? Yes, because that was all she was ... or would become some day! My brother, Perry, always was a bit cracked. As a kid, he almost blew up our house doing experiments. When he was eighteen, he wrote poetry, but fortunately that didn't last long and he went back to science.
Chapter 1 of Picture Bride is here in full — 155 sentences across 31 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/31 · 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.
inflected form of “blow” — exhale hard
From this reading “As a kid, he almost blew up our house doing experiments.”
used of skin roughened as a result of cold or exposure
From this reading “My brother, Perry, always was a bit cracked.”
being one more than seventeen
From this reading “When he was eighteen, he wrote poetry, but fortunately that didn't last long and he went back to science.”
plural of “experiment” — the act of conducting a controlled test or investigation
From this reading “As a kid, he almost blew up our house doing experiments.”
by good fortune
From this reading “When he was eighteen, he wrote poetry, but fortunately that didn't last long and he went back to science.”
tell false information to for fun
From this reading “As a kid, he almost blew up our house doing experiments.”
United States philosopher (1876-1957)
From this reading “My brother, Perry, always was a bit cracked.”
a particular branch of scientific knowledge
From this reading “When he was eighteen, he wrote poetry, but fortunately that didn't last long and he went back to science.”
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 “When he was eighteen, he wrote poetry, but fortunately that didn't last long and he went back to science.”
belong to an earlier time
In this reading “When he was eighteen, he wrote poetry, but fortunately that didn't last long and he went back to science.”
In this reading “Yes, because that was all she was ... or would become some day!”
cause to burst with a violent release of energy
In this reading “As a kid, he almost blew up our house doing experiments.”
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 As pretty as a picture?
(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 Yes, because that was all she was ... or would become some day!
(of actions or states) slightly short of or not quite accomplished; all but
From this reading As a kid, he almost blew up our house doing experiments.
at all times; all the time and on every occasion
From this reading My brother, Perry, always was a bit cracked.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading When he was eighteen, he wrote poetry, but fortunately that didn't last long and he went back to science.
at the same time that; because; in the way that
From this reading As pretty as a picture?
in or to or toward a former location
From this reading When he was eighteen, he wrote poetry, but fortunately that didn't last long and he went back to science.
for the reason that
From this reading Yes, because that was all she was ... or would become some day!
enter or assume a certain state or condition
From this reading Yes, because that was all she was ... or would become some day!
a small piece or quantity of something
From this reading My brother, Perry, always was a bit cracked.
inflected form of “blow” — exhale hard
From this reading As a kid, he almost blew up our house doing experiments.
a male with the same parents as someone else
From this reading My brother, Perry, always was a bit cracked.
used to introduce something that contrasts with what came before
From this reading When he was eighteen, he wrote poetry, but fortunately that didn't last long and he went back to science.
used of skin roughened as a result of cold or exposure
From this reading My brother, Perry, always was a bit cracked.
time for Earth to make a complete rotation on its axis
From this reading Yes, because that was all she was ... or would become some day!
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading When he was eighteen, he wrote poetry, but fortunately that didn't last long and he went back to science.
-ing form of “do” — engage in
From this reading As a kid, he almost blew up our house doing experiments.
being one more than seventeen
From this reading When he was eighteen, he wrote poetry, but fortunately that didn't last long and he went back to science.
plural of “experiment” — the act of conducting a controlled test or investigation
From this reading As a kid, he almost blew up our house doing experiments.
by good fortune
From this reading When he was eighteen, he wrote poetry, but fortunately that didn't last long and he went back to science.
a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading As a kid, he almost blew up our house doing experiments.
a dwelling that serves as living quarters for one or more families
From this reading As a kid, he almost blew up our house doing experiments.
tell false information to for fun
From this reading As a kid, he almost blew up our house doing experiments.
immediately past
From this reading When he was eighteen, he wrote poetry, but fortunately that didn't last long and he went back to science.
primarily temporal sense; being or indicating a relatively great or greater than average duration or passage of time or a duration as specified
From this reading When he was eighteen, he wrote poetry, but fortunately that didn't last long and he went back to science.
belonging to the person speaking
From this reading My brother, Perry, always was a bit cracked.
used to join alternatives or possibilities
From this reading Yes, because that was all she was ... or would become some day!
belonging to the speaker and others
From this reading As a kid, he almost blew up our house doing experiments.
United States philosopher (1876-1957)
From this reading My brother, Perry, always was a bit cracked.
a visual representation (of an object or scene or person or abstraction) produced on a surface
From this reading As pretty as a picture?
literature in metrical form
From this reading When he was eighteen, he wrote poetry, but fortunately that didn't last long and he went back to science.
pleasing by delicacy or grace; not imposing
From this reading As pretty as a picture?
a particular branch of scientific knowledge
From this reading When he was eighteen, he wrote poetry, but fortunately that didn't last long and he went back to science.
a woman, girl, or female animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading Yes, because that was all she was ... or would become some day!
(quantifier) used with either mass nouns or plural count nouns to indicate an unspecified number or quantity
From this reading Yes, because that was all she was ... or would become some day!
used to introduce what somebody said, thought, or felt
From this reading Yes, because that was all she was ... or would become some day!
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading When he was eighteen, he wrote poetry, but fortunately that didn't last long and he went back to science.
being or moving higher in position or greater in some value; being above a former position or level
From this reading As a kid, he almost blew up our house doing experiments.
the past form of “be” used with I, he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading Yes, because that was all she was ... or would become some day!
inflected form of “go” — change location; move, travel, or proceed, also metaphorically
From this reading When he was eighteen, he wrote poetry, but fortunately that didn't last long and he went back to science.
at the time that
From this reading When he was eighteen, he wrote poetry, but fortunately that didn't last long and he went back to science.
used for something imagined, polite, or habitual in the past
From this reading Yes, because that was all she was ... or would become some day!
inflected form of “write” — produce a literary work
From this reading When he was eighteen, he wrote poetry, but fortunately that didn't last long and he went back to science.
an affirmative
From this reading Yes, because that was all she was ... or would become some day!
Chapter 1 of Picture Bride by Joseph Samachson holds 155 sentences, grouped into 31 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 155 sentences of Picture Bride, unabridged, divided into 31 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 1 of Picture Bride by Joseph Samachson exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 155 sentences, grouped into 31 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 31 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 31 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 Picture Bride by Joseph Samachson on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 155 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #51009 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #51009, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 12 minutes of reading across 31 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through Picture Bride section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 1 chapters of Picture Bride 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 Picture Bride, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
