Chapter 11 of The Circus Comes to Town is here in full — 204 sentences across 41 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter XI
Chapter 11 of The Circus Comes to Town is here in full — 204 sentences across 41 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A BOY NAMED GARY Jerry looked long into the face of the lady. It was all pink and white and her lips were very red. Her hair was a golden brown and it was long and thick and hung down her back. "Are you my mother?" asked Jerry wistfully. He would like very much to have a mother as beautiful as this.
Chapter 11 of The Circus Comes to Town is here in full — 204 sentences across 41 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/40 · 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 city in northwest Indiana on Lake Michigan; steel production
From this reading “A BOY NAMED GARY Jerry looked long into the face of the lady.”
having the deep slightly brownish color of gold
From this reading “Her hair was a golden brown and it was long and thick and hung down her back.”
inflected form of “hang” — be suspended or hanging
From this reading “Her hair was a golden brown and it was long and thick and hung down her back.”
offensive term for a person of German descent
From this reading “A BOY NAMED GARY Jerry looked long into the face of the lady.”
past form of “name” — assign a specified (usually proper) proper name to
From this reading “A BOY NAMED GARY Jerry looked long into the face of the lady.”
a light shade of red
From this reading “It was all pink and white and her lips were very red.”
not thin; of a specific thickness or of relatively great extent from one surface to the opposite usually in the smallest of the three solid dimensions
From this reading “Her hair was a golden brown and it was long and thick and hung down her back.”
in a wistful manner
From this reading “"Are you my mother?" asked Jerry wistfully.”
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 A BOY NAMED GARY Jerry looked long into the face of the lady.
(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 It was all pink and white and her lips were very red.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading It was all pink and white and her lips were very red.
the form of “be” used with you, we, they, or a plural noun
From this reading "Are you my mother?" asked Jerry wistfully.
at the same time that; because; in the way that
From this reading He would like very much to have a mother as beautiful as this.
past form of “ask” — make a request or demand for something to somebody
From this reading "Are you my mother?" asked Jerry wistfully.
in or to or toward a former location
From this reading Her hair was a golden brown and it was long and thick and hung down her back.
delighting the senses or exciting intellectual or emotional admiration
From this reading He would like very much to have a mother as beautiful as this.
a youthful male person
From this reading A BOY NAMED GARY Jerry looked long into the face of the lady.
an orange of low brightness and saturation
From this reading Her hair was a golden brown and it was long and thick and hung down her back.
being or moving lower in position or less in some value
From this reading Her hair was a golden brown and it was long and thick and hung down her back.
the front of the human head from the forehead to the chin and ear to ear
From this reading A BOY NAMED GARY Jerry looked long into the face of the lady.
a city in northwest Indiana on Lake Michigan; steel production
From this reading A BOY NAMED GARY Jerry looked long into the face of the lady.
having the deep slightly brownish color of gold
From this reading Her hair was a golden brown and it was long and thick and hung down her back.
a covering for the body (or parts of it) consisting of a dense growth of threadlike structures (as on the human head); helps to prevent heat loss
From this reading Her hair was a golden brown and it was long and thick and hung down her back.
used with a past participle to form the perfect tenses
From this reading He would like very much to have a mother as beautiful as this.
a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading He would like very much to have a mother as beautiful as this.
belonging to a woman, girl, or female animal already mentioned
From this reading It was all pink and white and her lips were very red.
inflected form of “hang” — be suspended or hanging
From this reading Her hair was a golden brown and it was long and thick and hung down her back.
moving to the inside of something
From this reading A BOY NAMED GARY Jerry looked long into the face of the lady.
a thing, animal, or idea already mentioned
From this reading It was all pink and white and her lips were very red.
offensive term for a person of German descent
From this reading A BOY NAMED GARY Jerry looked long into the face of the lady.
a polite name for any woman
From this reading A BOY NAMED GARY Jerry looked long into the face of the lady.
prefer or wish to do something
From this reading He would like very much to have a mother as beautiful as this.
plural of “lip” — either of two fleshy folds of tissue that surround the mouth and play a role in speaking
From this reading It was all pink and white and her lips were very red.
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 A BOY NAMED GARY Jerry looked long into the face of the lady.
past form of “look” — perceive with attention; direct one's gaze towards
From this reading A BOY NAMED GARY Jerry looked long into the face of the lady.
a woman who has given birth to a child (also used as a term of address to your mother)
From this reading "Are you my mother?" asked Jerry wistfully.
to a great degree or extent
From this reading He would like very much to have a mother as beautiful as this.
belonging to the person speaking
From this reading "Are you my mother?" asked Jerry wistfully.
past form of “name” — assign a specified (usually proper) proper name to
From this reading A BOY NAMED GARY Jerry looked long into the face of the lady.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading A BOY NAMED GARY Jerry looked long into the face of the lady.
a light shade of red
From this reading It was all pink and white and her lips were very red.
red color or pigment; the chromatic color resembling the hue of blood
From this reading It was all pink and white and her lips were very red.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading A BOY NAMED GARY Jerry looked long into the face of the lady.
not thin; of a specific thickness or of relatively great extent from one surface to the opposite usually in the smallest of the three solid dimensions
From this reading Her hair was a golden brown and it was long and thick and hung down her back.
used for a person or thing that is near, or that has just been mentioned
From this reading He would like very much to have a mother as beautiful as this.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading He would like very much to have a mother as beautiful as this.
precisely as stated
From this reading It was all pink and white and her lips were very red.
the past form of “be” used with I, he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading It was all pink and white and her lips were very red.
the past form of “be” used with you, we, they, or a plural noun
From this reading It was all pink and white and her lips were very red.
a Caucasian
From this reading It was all pink and white and her lips were very red.
in a wistful manner
From this reading "Are you my mother?" asked Jerry wistfully.
used for something imagined, polite, or habitual in the past
From this reading He would like very much to have a mother as beautiful as this.
the person or people being spoken to
From this reading "Are you my mother?" asked Jerry wistfully.
Chapter 11 of The Circus Comes to Town by Lebbeus Mitchell holds 204 sentences, grouped into 41 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 11 holds 204 sentences of The Circus Comes to Town, unabridged, divided into 41 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 11 of The Circus Comes to Town by Lebbeus Mitchell exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 204 sentences, grouped into 41 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 41 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 41 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 11 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 Circus Comes to Town by Lebbeus Mitchell on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 0 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #? are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #?, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 5 minutes of reading across 0 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Circus Comes to Town section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 0 chapters of The Circus Comes to Town 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 Circus Comes to Town, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
