Chapter 4 of The Arrow of Fire: A Mystery Story for Boys is here in full — 106 sentences across 22 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter IV
Chapter 4 of The Arrow of Fire: A Mystery Story for Boys is here in full — 106 sentences across 22 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
JOHNNY CALLS THE SQUADS It was night: ten o'clock. Johnny stood atop a ten story building, looking off and down. A thousand white lights shone along an endless way. Like great black bugs with gleaming eyes, countless cars glided down that glistening boulevard. To the right, shimmering waters reflected the thousand lamps.
Chapter 4 of The Arrow of Fire: A Mystery Story for Boys is here in full — 106 sentences across 22 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/21 · 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.
on, to, or at the top
From this reading “Johnny stood atop a ten story building, looking off and down.”
a wide street or thoroughfare
From this reading “Like great black bugs with gleaming eyes, countless cars glided down that glistening boulevard.”
plural of “bug” — general term for any insect or similar creeping or crawling invertebrate
From this reading “Like great black bugs with gleaming eyes, countless cars glided down that glistening boulevard.”
too numerous to be counted
From this reading “Like great black bugs with gleaming eyes, countless cars glided down that glistening boulevard.”
past form of “glide” — move smoothly and effortlessly
From this reading “Like great black bugs with gleaming eyes, countless cars glided down that glistening boulevard.”
reflecting light
From this reading “Like great black bugs with gleaming eyes, countless cars glided down that glistening boulevard.”
-ing form of “shimmer” — shine with a weak or fitful light
From this reading “To the right, shimmering waters reflected the thousand lamps.”
plural of “squad” — a smallest army unit
From this reading “JOHNNY CALLS THE SQUADS It was night: ten o'clock.”
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 “Like great black bugs with gleaming eyes, countless cars glided down that glistening boulevard.”
In this reading “Like great black bugs with gleaming eyes, countless cars glided down that glistening boulevard.”
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 Johnny stood atop a ten story building, looking off and down.
following the length of something from one end toward the other
From this reading A thousand white lights shone along an endless way.
the form of “a” used before a word that begins with a vowel sound
From this reading A thousand white lights shone along an endless way.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading Johnny stood atop a ten story building, looking off and down.
on, to, or at the top
From this reading Johnny stood atop a ten story building, looking off and down.
being of the achromatic color of maximum darkness; having little or no hue owing to absorption of almost all incident light
From this reading Like great black bugs with gleaming eyes, countless cars glided down that glistening boulevard.
a wide street or thoroughfare
From this reading Like great black bugs with gleaming eyes, countless cars glided down that glistening boulevard.
plural of “bug” — general term for any insect or similar creeping or crawling invertebrate
From this reading Like great black bugs with gleaming eyes, countless cars glided down that glistening boulevard.
a structure that has a roof and walls and stands more or less permanently in one place
From this reading Johnny stood atop a ten story building, looking off and down.
plural of “call” — a telephone connection
From this reading JOHNNY CALLS THE SQUADS It was night: ten o'clock.
plural of “car” — a motor vehicle with four wheels; usually propelled by an internal combustion engine
From this reading Like great black bugs with gleaming eyes, countless cars glided down that glistening boulevard.
too numerous to be counted
From this reading Like great black bugs with gleaming eyes, countless cars glided down that glistening boulevard.
being or moving lower in position or less in some value
From this reading Johnny stood atop a ten story building, looking off and down.
tiresomely long; seemingly without end
From this reading A thousand white lights shone along an endless way.
opinion or judgment
From this reading Like great black bugs with gleaming eyes, countless cars glided down that glistening boulevard.
a flash of light (especially reflected light)
From this reading Like great black bugs with gleaming eyes, countless cars glided down that glistening boulevard.
past form of “glide” — move smoothly and effortlessly
From this reading Like great black bugs with gleaming eyes, countless cars glided down that glistening boulevard.
reflecting light
From this reading Like great black bugs with gleaming eyes, countless cars glided down that glistening boulevard.
relatively large in size or number or extent; larger than others of its kind
From this reading Like great black bugs with gleaming eyes, countless cars glided down that glistening boulevard.
a thing, animal, or idea already mentioned
From this reading JOHNNY CALLS THE SQUADS It was night: ten o'clock.
“Johnny” was applied as a nickname for Confederate soldiers by the Federal soldiers in the American Civil War; “greyback” derived from their grey Confederate uniforms
From this reading JOHNNY CALLS THE SQUADS It was night: ten o'clock.
plural of “lamp” — an artificial source of visible illumination
From this reading To the right, shimmering waters reflected the thousand lamps.
plural of “light” — (physics) electromagnetic radiation that can produce a visual sensation
From this reading A thousand white lights shone along an endless way.
prefer or wish to do something
From this reading Like great black bugs with gleaming eyes, countless cars glided down that glistening boulevard.
the act of directing the eyes toward something and perceiving it visually
From this reading Johnny stood atop a ten story building, looking off and down.
the time after sunset and before sunrise while it is dark outside
From this reading JOHNNY CALLS THE SQUADS It was night: ten o'clock.
according to the clock
From this reading JOHNNY CALLS THE SQUADS It was night: ten o'clock.
from a particular thing or place or position (“forth” is obsolete)
From this reading Johnny stood atop a ten story building, looking off and down.
(especially of incident sound or light) bent or sent back
From this reading To the right, shimmering waters reflected the thousand lamps.
precisely, exactly
From this reading To the right, shimmering waters reflected the thousand lamps.
-ing form of “shimmer” — shine with a weak or fitful light
From this reading To the right, shimmering waters reflected the thousand lamps.
inflected form of “shine” — be bright by reflecting or casting light
From this reading A thousand white lights shone along an endless way.
plural of “squad” — a smallest army unit
From this reading JOHNNY CALLS THE SQUADS It was night: ten o'clock.
Maintained an upright posture.
From this reading Johnny stood atop a ten story building, looking off and down.
a message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio or television program
From this reading Johnny stood atop a ten story building, looking off and down.
the cardinal number that is the sum of nine and one; the base of the decimal system
From this reading JOHNNY CALLS THE SQUADS It was night: ten o'clock.
used to introduce what somebody said, thought, or felt
From this reading Like great black bugs with gleaming eyes, countless cars glided down that glistening boulevard.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading JOHNNY CALLS THE SQUADS It was night: ten o'clock.
the cardinal number that is the product of 10 and 100
From this reading A thousand white lights shone along an endless way.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading To the right, shimmering waters reflected the thousand lamps.
the past form of “be” used with I, he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading JOHNNY CALLS THE SQUADS It was night: ten o'clock.
United States actress and singer (1896-1977)
From this reading To the right, shimmering waters reflected the thousand lamps.
how something is done or how it happens
From this reading A thousand white lights shone along an endless way.
a Caucasian
From this reading A thousand white lights shone along an endless way.
in the company of; together with
From this reading Like great black bugs with gleaming eyes, countless cars glided down that glistening boulevard.
Chapter 4 of The Arrow of Fire: A Mystery Story for Boys by Roy J. (Roy Judson) Snell holds 106 sentences, grouped into 22 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 106 sentences of The Arrow of Fire: A Mystery Story for Boys, unabridged, divided into 22 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 4 of The Arrow of Fire: A Mystery Story for Boys by Roy J. (Roy Judson) Snell exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 106 sentences, grouped into 22 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 22 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 22 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 The Arrow of Fire: A Mystery Story for Boys by Roy J. (Roy Judson) Snell on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 4592 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #43263 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #43263, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 382 minutes of reading across 919 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Arrow of Fire: A Mystery Story for Boys section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 33 chapters of The Arrow of Fire: A Mystery Story for Boys 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 The Arrow of Fire: A Mystery Story for Boys, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
