Chapter 1 of Silver Cross is here in full — 159 sentences across 32 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
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Chapter I
Chapter 1 of Silver Cross is here in full — 159 sentences across 32 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Henry the Seventh sat upon the throne. The town of Middle Forest had long since pushed the forest from all sides. Its streets, forked as lightning, ran up to the castle and down to the river. The river here was near its mouth, and wide. The bridge that crossed it had many arches.
Chapter 1 of Silver Cross is here in full — 159 sentences across 32 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.
plural of “arch” — a curved shape in the vertical plane that spans an opening
From this reading “The bridge that crossed it had many arches.”
a structure that allows people or vehicles to cross an obstacle such as a river or canal or railway etc.
From this reading “The bridge that crossed it had many arches.”
resembling a fork; divided or separated into two branches
From this reading “Its streets, forked as lightning, ran up to the castle and down to the river.”
abrupt electric discharge from cloud to cloud or from cloud to earth accompanied by the emission of light
From this reading “Its streets, forked as lightning, ran up to the castle and down to the river.”
past form of “push” — move with force
From this reading “The town of Middle Forest had long since pushed the forest from all sides.”
coming next after the sixth and just before the eighth in position
From this reading “Henry the Seventh sat upon the throne.”
plural of “street” — a thoroughfare (usually including sidewalks) that is lined with buildings
From this reading “Its streets, forked as lightning, ran up to the castle and down to the river.”
the chair of state for a monarch, bishop, etc.
From this reading “Henry the Seventh sat upon the throne.”
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 “Henry the Seventh sat upon the throne.”
pile up (debts or scores)
In this reading “Its streets, forked as lightning, ran up to the castle and down to the river.”
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.
(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 The town of Middle Forest had long since pushed the forest from all sides.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading Its streets, forked as lightning, ran up to the castle and down to the river.
plural of “arch” — a curved shape in the vertical plane that spans an opening
From this reading The bridge that crossed it had many arches.
at the same time that; because; in the way that
From this reading Its streets, forked as lightning, ran up to the castle and down to the river.
a structure that allows people or vehicles to cross an obstacle such as a river or canal or railway etc.
From this reading The bridge that crossed it had many arches.
a large and stately mansion
From this reading Its streets, forked as lightning, ran up to the castle and down to the river.
placed crosswise
From this reading The bridge that crossed it had many arches.
being or moving lower in position or less in some value
From this reading Its streets, forked as lightning, ran up to the castle and down to the river.
the trees and other plants in a large densely wooded area
From this reading The town of Middle Forest had long since pushed the forest from all sides.
resembling a fork; divided or separated into two branches
From this reading Its streets, forked as lightning, ran up to the castle and down to the river.
showing where something starts, or who sent it
From this reading The town of Middle Forest had long since pushed the forest from all sides.
the past form of “have”, used to form the past perfect
From this reading The town of Middle Forest had long since pushed the forest from all sides.
a unit of inductance in which an induced electromotive force of one volt is produced when the current is varied at the rate of one ampere per second
From this reading Henry the Seventh sat upon the throne.
in or at this place; where the speaker or writer is
From this reading The river here was near its mouth, and wide.
a thing, animal, or idea already mentioned
From this reading The bridge that crossed it had many arches.
belonging to the thing or animal already mentioned
From this reading Its streets, forked as lightning, ran up to the castle and down to the river.
abrupt electric discharge from cloud to cloud or from cloud to earth accompanied by the emission of light
From this reading Its streets, forked as lightning, ran up to the castle and down to the river.
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 The town of Middle Forest had long since pushed the forest from all sides.
a quantifier that can be used with count nouns and is often preceded by “as” or “too” or “so” or “that”; amounting to a large but indefinite number
From this reading The bridge that crossed it had many arches.
an area that is approximately central within some larger region
From this reading The town of Middle Forest had long since pushed the forest from all sides.
the opening through which food is taken in and vocalizations emerge
From this reading The river here was near its mouth, and wide.
near in time or place or relationship
From this reading The river here was near its mouth, and wide.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading The town of Middle Forest had long since pushed the forest from all sides.
past form of “push” — move with force
From this reading The town of Middle Forest had long since pushed the forest from all sides.
inflected form of “run” — move fast by using one's feet, with one foot off the ground at any given time
From this reading Its streets, forked as lightning, ran up to the castle and down to the river.
a large natural stream of water (larger than a creek)
From this reading Its streets, forked as lightning, ran up to the castle and down to the river.
the seventh and last day of the week; observed as the Sabbath by Jews and some Christians
From this reading Henry the Seventh sat upon the throne.
coming next after the sixth and just before the eighth in position
From this reading Henry the Seventh sat upon the throne.
plural of “side” — a place within a region identified relative to a center or reference location
From this reading The town of Middle Forest had long since pushed the forest from all sides.
from a time in the past until now
From this reading The town of Middle Forest had long since pushed the forest from all sides.
plural of “street” — a thoroughfare (usually including sidewalks) that is lined with buildings
From this reading Its streets, forked as lightning, ran up to the castle and down to the river.
used to introduce what somebody said, thought, or felt
From this reading The bridge that crossed it had many arches.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading Henry the Seventh sat upon the throne.
the chair of state for a monarch, bishop, etc.
From this reading Henry the Seventh sat upon the throne.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading Its streets, forked as lightning, ran up to the castle and down to the river.
an urban area with a fixed boundary that is smaller than a city
From this reading The town of Middle Forest had long since pushed the forest from all sides.
being or moving higher in position or greater in some value; being above a former position or level
From this reading Its streets, forked as lightning, ran up to the castle and down to the river.
a formal word for “on”
From this reading Henry the Seventh sat upon the throne.
the past form of “be” used with I, he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading The river here was near its mouth, and wide.
having great (or a certain) extent from one side to the other
From this reading The river here was near its mouth, and wide.
Chapter 1 of Silver Cross by Mary Johnston holds 159 sentences, grouped into 32 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 159 sentences of Silver Cross, unabridged, divided into 32 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 1 of Silver Cross by Mary Johnston exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 159 sentences, grouped into 32 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 32 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 32 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 Silver Cross by Mary Johnston on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 5108 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #50557 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #50557, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 425 minutes of reading across 1022 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through Silver Cross section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 31 chapters of Silver Cross 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 Silver Cross, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
