Chapter 4 of Rainy Week is here in full — 536 sentences across 108 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter IV
Chapter 4 of Rainy Week is here in full — 536 sentences across 108 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
SLEEP is a funny thing! Really comical I mean! A magician's trick! "Now you have it--and now you don't!" Certainly I had very little of it the night of Dr. Brawne's telephone conversation.
Chapter 4 of Rainy Week is here in full — 536 sentences across 108 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/107 · 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.
definitely or positively (“sure” is sometimes used informally for “surely”)
From this reading “Certainly I had very little of it the night of Dr. Brawne's telephone conversation.”
arousing or provoking laughter
From this reading “Really comical I mean!”
the use of speech for informal exchange of views or ideas or information etc.
From this reading “Certainly I had very little of it the night of Dr. Brawne's telephone conversation.”
arousing or provoking laughter
From this reading “SLEEP is a funny thing!”
mean or intend to express or convey
From this reading “Really comical I mean!”
a natural and periodic state of rest during which consciousness of the world is suspended
From this reading “SLEEP is a funny thing!”
electronic equipment that converts sound into electrical signals that can be transmitted over distances and then converts received signals back into sounds
From this reading “Certainly I had very little of it the night of Dr. Brawne's telephone conversation.”
a cunning or deceitful action or device
From this reading “A magician's trick!”
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 “SLEEP is a funny thing!”
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 SLEEP is a funny thing!
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading "Now you have it--and now you don't!"
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Certainly I had very little of it the night of Dr. Brawne's telephone conversation.
definitely or positively (“sure” is sometimes used informally for “surely”)
From this reading Certainly I had very little of it the night of Dr. Brawne's telephone conversation.
arousing or provoking laughter
From this reading Really comical I mean!
the use of speech for informal exchange of views or ideas or information etc.
From this reading Certainly I had very little of it the night of Dr. Brawne's telephone conversation.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading "Now you have it--and now you don't!"
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Certainly I had very little of it the night of Dr. Brawne's telephone conversation.
arousing or provoking laughter
From this reading SLEEP is a funny thing!
the past form of “have”, used to form the past perfect
From this reading Certainly I had very little of it the night of Dr. Brawne's telephone conversation.
used with a past participle to form the perfect tenses
From this reading "Now you have it--and now you don't!"
the person speaking or writing, as the subject of the verb
From this reading Really comical I mean!
the form of “be” used with he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading SLEEP is a funny thing!
a thing, animal, or idea already mentioned
From this reading "Now you have it--and now you don't!"
limited or below average in number or quantity or magnitude or extent
From this reading Certainly I had very little of it the night of Dr. Brawne's telephone conversation.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading A magician's trick!
mean or intend to express or convey
From this reading Really comical I mean!
the time after sunset and before sunrise while it is dark outside
From this reading Certainly I had very little of it the night of Dr. Brawne's telephone conversation.
in the historical present; at this point in the narration of a series of past events
From this reading "Now you have it--and now you don't!"
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading Certainly I had very little of it the night of Dr. Brawne's telephone conversation.
in accordance with truth or fact or reality
From this reading Really comical I mean!
a natural and periodic state of rest during which consciousness of the world is suspended
From this reading SLEEP is a funny thing!
electronic equipment that converts sound into electrical signals that can be transmitted over distances and then converts received signals back into sounds
From this reading Certainly I had very little of it the night of Dr. Brawne's telephone conversation.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading Certainly I had very little of it the night of Dr. Brawne's telephone conversation.
a special situation
From this reading SLEEP is a funny thing!
a cunning or deceitful action or device
From this reading A magician's trick!
precisely as stated
From this reading Certainly I had very little of it the night of Dr. Brawne's telephone conversation.
the person or people being spoken to
From this reading "Now you have it--and now you don't!"
Chapter 4 of Rainy Week by Eleanor Hallowell Abbott holds 536 sentences, grouped into 108 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 4 holds 536 sentences of Rainy Week, unabridged, divided into 108 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 4 of Rainy Week by Eleanor Hallowell Abbott exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 536 sentences, grouped into 108 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 108 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 108 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 4 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 Rainy Week by Eleanor Hallowell Abbott on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 3269 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #43025 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #43025, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 272 minutes of reading across 654 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through Rainy Week section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 6 chapters of Rainy Week 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 Rainy Week, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
