Chapter 1 of The Benefactress is here in full — 140 sentences across 28 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
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Chapter I
Chapter 1 of The Benefactress is here in full — 140 sentences across 28 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Norwood Press J. S. Gushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass. U.S.A. Man bedarf der Leitung Und der männlichen Begleitung. WILHELM BUSCH. When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.
Chapter 1 of The Benefactress is here in full — 140 sentences across 28 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/28 · 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.
a former copper coin of Pakistan and India
From this reading “When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.”
take the trouble to do something; concern oneself
From this reading “When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.”
brought into equipoise by means of a weight or force that offsets another
From this reading “When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.”
flowing profusely
From this reading “Norwood Press J. S. Gushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass.”
the property of a body that causes it to have weight in a gravitational field
From this reading “Norwood Press J. S. Gushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass.”
exert pressure or force to or upon
From this reading “Norwood Press J. S. Gushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass.”
Rhodesian statesman who declared independence of Zimbabwe from Great Britain (born in 1919)
From this reading “Norwood Press J. S. Gushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass.”
being five more than twenty
From this reading “When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.”
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 Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.”
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 U.S.A.
(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 When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.
a former copper coin of Pakistan and India
From this reading When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.
in or near a particular place or position
From this reading When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Man bedarf der Leitung Und der männlichen Begleitung.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Man bedarf der Leitung Und der männlichen Begleitung.
inflected form of “begin” — take the first step or steps in carrying out an action
From this reading When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Norwood Press J. S. Gushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass.
take the trouble to do something; concern oneself
From this reading When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading WILHELM BUSCH.
an odorless very poisonous gas that is a product of incomplete combustion of carbon
From this reading Norwood Press J. S. Gushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass.
brought into equipoise by means of a weight or force that offsets another
From this reading When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Man bedarf der Leitung Und der männlichen Begleitung.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.
capable of being extracted
From this reading When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.
showing where something starts, or who sent it
From this reading When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.
flowing profusely
From this reading Norwood Press J. S. Gushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass.
the past form of “have”, used to form the past perfect
From this reading When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.
past form of “happen” — come to pass
From this reading When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.
a thing, animal, or idea already mentioned
From this reading When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.
a unit of electrical energy equal to the work done when a current of one ampere passes through a resistance of one ohm for one second
From this reading Norwood Press J. S. Gushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Man bedarf der Leitung Und der männlichen Begleitung.
a characteristic state or mode of living
From this reading When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.
an adult person who is male (as opposed to a woman)
From this reading Man bedarf der Leitung Und der männlichen Begleitung.
the property of a body that causes it to have weight in a gravitational field
From this reading Norwood Press J. S. Gushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Man bedarf der Leitung Und der männlichen Begleitung.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Norwood Press J. S. Gushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.
a fundamental feeling that is hard to define but that people desire to experience
From this reading When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.
exert pressure or force to or upon
From this reading Norwood Press J. S. Gushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass.
1/60 of a minute; the basic unit of time adopted under the Systeme International d'Unites
From this reading Norwood Press J. S. Gushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass.
Rhodesian statesman who declared independence of Zimbabwe from Great Britain (born in 1919)
From this reading Norwood Press J. S. Gushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.
a special situation
From this reading When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.
being five more than twenty
From this reading When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.
a base containing nitrogen that is found in RNA (but not in DNA) and derived from pyrimidine; pairs with adenine
From this reading U.S.A.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Man bedarf der Leitung Und der männlichen Begleitung.
the past form of “be” used with I, he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.
at the time that
From this reading When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.
used to introduce two or more possibilities
From this reading When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading WILHELM BUSCH.
the feeling aroused by something strange and surprising
From this reading When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.
extraordinarily good or great; used especially as intensifiers
From this reading When Anna Estcourt was twenty-five, and had begun to wonder whether the pleasure extractable from life at all counterbalanced the bother of it, a wonderful thing happened.
Chapter 1 of The Benefactress by Elizabeth Von Arnim holds 140 sentences, grouped into 28 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 140 sentences of The Benefactress, unabridged, divided into 28 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 1 of The Benefactress by Elizabeth Von Arnim exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 140 sentences, grouped into 28 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 28 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 28 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 The Benefactress by Elizabeth Von Arnim on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 6528 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #30302 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #30302, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 544 minutes of reading across 1306 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Benefactress section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 32 chapters of The Benefactress 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 Benefactress, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
