Chapter 1 of Tales of the Trains is here in full — 441 sentences across 89 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
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Chapter I
Chapter 1 of Tales of the Trains is here in full — 441 sentences across 89 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
With Illustrations By Phiz. Boston: Little, Brown, And Company. By Tilbury Tramp, Queen’s Messenger. Bang, bang, bang! Shake, shiver, and throb; The sound of our feet Is the piston’s beat, And the opening valve our sob!
Chapter 1 of Tales of the Trains is here in full — 441 sentences across 89 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/88 · 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.
strike violently
From this reading “Bang, bang, bang!”
plural of “illustration” — artwork that helps make something clear or attractive
From this reading “With Illustrations By Phiz.”
possessive form of “queen” — the only fertile female in a colony of social insects such as bees and ants and termites; its function is to lay eggs
tremble convulsively, as from fear or excitement
From this reading “Shake, shiver, and throb; The sound of our feet Is the piston’s beat, And the opening valve our sob!”
weep convulsively
From this reading “Shake, shiver, and throb; The sound of our feet Is the piston’s beat, And the opening valve our sob!”
pulsate or pound with abnormal force
From this reading “Shake, shiver, and throb; The sound of our feet Is the piston’s beat, And the opening valve our sob!”
a vagrant
From this reading “By Tilbury Tramp, Queen’s Messenger.”
a structure in a hollow organ (like the heart) with a flap to insure one-way flow of fluid through it
From this reading “Shake, shiver, and throb; The sound of our feet Is the piston’s beat, And the opening valve our sob!”
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 to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading Boston: Little, Brown, And Company.
strike violently
From this reading Bang, bang, bang!
come out better in a competition, race, or conflict
From this reading Shake, shiver, and throb; The sound of our feet Is the piston’s beat, And the opening valve our sob!
state capital and largest city of Massachusetts; a major center for banking and financial services
From this reading Boston: Little, Brown, And Company.
an orange of low brightness and saturation
From this reading Boston: Little, Brown, And Company.
showing who or what does the action
From this reading With Illustrations By Phiz.
an institution created to conduct business
From this reading Boston: Little, Brown, And Company.
plural of “foot” — the part of the leg of a human being below the ankle joint
From this reading Shake, shiver, and throb; The sound of our feet Is the piston’s beat, And the opening valve our sob!
plural of “illustration” — artwork that helps make something clear or attractive
From this reading With Illustrations By Phiz.
the form of “be” used with he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading Shake, shiver, and throb; The sound of our feet Is the piston’s beat, And the opening valve our sob!
limited or below average in number or quantity or magnitude or extent
From this reading Boston: Little, Brown, And Company.
a person who carries a message
From this reading By Tilbury Tramp, Queen’s Messenger.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading Shake, shiver, and throb; The sound of our feet Is the piston’s beat, And the opening valve our sob!
an open or empty space in or between things
From this reading Shake, shiver, and throb; The sound of our feet Is the piston’s beat, And the opening valve our sob!
belonging to the speaker and others
From this reading Shake, shiver, and throb; The sound of our feet Is the piston’s beat, And the opening valve our sob!
English illustrator of several of Dickens' novels (1815-1882)
From this reading With Illustrations By Phiz.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Shake, shiver, and throb; The sound of our feet Is the piston’s beat, And the opening valve our sob!
possessive form of “queen” — the only fertile female in a colony of social insects such as bees and ants and termites; its function is to lay eggs
From this reading By Tilbury Tramp, Queen’s Messenger.
move or cause to move back and forth
From this reading Shake, shiver, and throb; The sound of our feet Is the piston’s beat, And the opening valve our sob!
tremble convulsively, as from fear or excitement
From this reading Shake, shiver, and throb; The sound of our feet Is the piston’s beat, And the opening valve our sob!
weep convulsively
From this reading Shake, shiver, and throb; The sound of our feet Is the piston’s beat, And the opening valve our sob!
the particular auditory effect produced by a given cause
From this reading Shake, shiver, and throb; The sound of our feet Is the piston’s beat, And the opening valve our sob!
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading Shake, shiver, and throb; The sound of our feet Is the piston’s beat, And the opening valve our sob!
pulsate or pound with abnormal force
From this reading Shake, shiver, and throb; The sound of our feet Is the piston’s beat, And the opening valve our sob!
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading By Tilbury Tramp, Queen’s Messenger.
a vagrant
From this reading By Tilbury Tramp, Queen’s Messenger.
a structure in a hollow organ (like the heart) with a flap to insure one-way flow of fluid through it
From this reading Shake, shiver, and throb; The sound of our feet Is the piston’s beat, And the opening valve our sob!
in the company of; together with
From this reading With Illustrations By Phiz.
Chapter 1 of Tales of the Trains by Charles Lever holds 441 sentences, grouped into 89 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 441 sentences of Tales of the Trains, unabridged, divided into 89 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 1 of Tales of the Trains by Charles Lever exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 441 sentences, grouped into 89 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 89 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 89 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 Tales of the Trains by Charles Lever on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 1307 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #34884 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #34884, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 108 minutes of reading across 262 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through Tales of the Trains section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 3 chapters of Tales of the Trains 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 Tales of the Trains, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
