Chapter 3 of The Contrast is here in full — 153 sentences across 31 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter III
Chapter 3 of The Contrast is here in full — 153 sentences across 31 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
LETITIA Oh! my dear fanciful-- CHARLOTTE Hush! I hear some person coming through the entry. Enter SERVANT. SERVANT. Madam, there's a gentleman below who calls himself Colonel Manly; do you chuse to be at home?
Chapter 3 of The Contrast is here in full — 153 sentences across 31 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/30 · 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 “call” — a telephone connection
From this reading “Madam, there's a gentleman below who calls himself Colonel Manly; do you chuse to be at home?”
the largest city in North Carolina; located in south central North Carolina
From this reading “LETITIA Oh! my dear fanciful-- CHARLOTTE Hush!”
a commissioned military officer in the United States Army or Air Force or Marines who ranks above a lieutenant colonel and below a brigadier general
From this reading “Madam, there's a gentleman below who calls himself Colonel Manly; do you chuse to be at home?”
an item inserted in a written record
From this reading “I hear some person coming through the entry.”
indulging in or influenced by fancy
From this reading “LETITIA Oh! my dear fanciful-- CHARLOTTE Hush!”
become quiet or still; fall silent
From this reading “LETITIA Oh! my dear fanciful-- CHARLOTTE Hush!”
a woman of refinement
From this reading “Madam, there's a gentleman below who calls himself Colonel Manly; do you chuse to be at home?”
possessing qualities befitting a man
From this reading “Madam, there's a gentleman below who calls himself Colonel Manly; do you chuse to be at home?”
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 Madam, there's a gentleman below who calls himself Colonel Manly; do you chuse to be at home?
in or near a particular place or position
From this reading Madam, there's a gentleman below who calls himself Colonel Manly; do you chuse to be at home?
used with a past participle to form the passive, or with -ing for continuous tenses
From this reading Madam, there's a gentleman below who calls himself Colonel Manly; do you chuse to be at home?
at or to a lower level than something
From this reading Madam, there's a gentleman below who calls himself Colonel Manly; do you chuse to be at home?
plural of “call” — a telephone connection
From this reading Madam, there's a gentleman below who calls himself Colonel Manly; do you chuse to be at home?
the largest city in North Carolina; located in south central North Carolina
From this reading LETITIA Oh! my dear fanciful-- CHARLOTTE Hush!
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Madam, there's a gentleman below who calls himself Colonel Manly; do you chuse to be at home?
a commissioned military officer in the United States Army or Air Force or Marines who ranks above a lieutenant colonel and below a brigadier general
From this reading Madam, there's a gentleman below who calls himself Colonel Manly; do you chuse to be at home?
the act of drawing spatially closer to something
From this reading I hear some person coming through the entry.
dearly loved
From this reading LETITIA Oh! my dear fanciful-- CHARLOTTE Hush!
used to form questions and negatives, and to give emphasis
From this reading Madam, there's a gentleman below who calls himself Colonel Manly; do you chuse to be at home?
to come or go into
From this reading Enter SERVANT.
an item inserted in a written record
From this reading I hear some person coming through the entry.
indulging in or influenced by fancy
From this reading LETITIA Oh! my dear fanciful-- CHARLOTTE Hush!
a man of refinement
From this reading Madam, there's a gentleman below who calls himself Colonel Manly; do you chuse to be at home?
perceive (sound) via the auditory sense
From this reading I hear some person coming through the entry.
used when the man or boy doing the action is also its object
From this reading Madam, there's a gentleman below who calls himself Colonel Manly; do you chuse to be at home?
where you live at a particular time
From this reading Madam, there's a gentleman below who calls himself Colonel Manly; do you chuse to be at home?
become quiet or still; fall silent
From this reading LETITIA Oh! my dear fanciful-- CHARLOTTE Hush!
the person speaking or writing, as the subject of the verb
From this reading I hear some person coming through the entry.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading LETITIA Oh! my dear fanciful-- CHARLOTTE Hush!
a woman of refinement
From this reading Madam, there's a gentleman below who calls himself Colonel Manly; do you chuse to be at home?
possessing qualities befitting a man
From this reading Madam, there's a gentleman below who calls himself Colonel Manly; do you chuse to be at home?
belonging to the person speaking
From this reading LETITIA Oh! my dear fanciful-- CHARLOTTE Hush!
a midwestern state in north central United States in the Great Lakes region
From this reading LETITIA Oh! my dear fanciful-- CHARLOTTE Hush!
a human being
From this reading I hear some person coming through the entry.
a person working in the service of another (especially in the household)
From this reading Enter SERVANT.
(quantifier) used with either mass nouns or plural count nouns to indicate an unspecified number or quantity
From this reading I hear some person coming through the entry.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading I hear some person coming through the entry.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Madam, there's a gentleman below who calls himself Colonel Manly; do you chuse to be at home?
from one end or side of something to the other
From this reading I hear some person coming through the entry.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading Madam, there's a gentleman below who calls himself Colonel Manly; do you chuse to be at home?
which person or people
From this reading Madam, there's a gentleman below who calls himself Colonel Manly; do you chuse to be at home?
the person or people being spoken to
From this reading Madam, there's a gentleman below who calls himself Colonel Manly; do you chuse to be at home?
Chapter 3 of The Contrast by Royall Tyler holds 153 sentences, grouped into 31 reading sections of at most 5 sentences. The text is the public-domain source, 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 3 holds 153 sentences of The Contrast, unabridged, divided into 31 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 3 of The Contrast by Royall Tyler exactly as it stands in the public-domain source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 153 sentences, grouped into 31 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 31 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 31 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 3 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 Contrast by Royall Tyler on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 1255 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #554 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #554, a public-domain edition. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 104 minutes of reading across 251 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Contrast section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 8 chapters of The Contrast 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 Contrast, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
