Chapter 1 of The Expressman and the Detective is here in full — 428 sentences across 86 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
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Chapter I
Chapter 1 of The Expressman and the Detective is here in full — 428 sentences across 86 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Allan Pinkerton's Detective Stories. THE EXPRESSMAN AND THE DETECTIVE. ALLAN PINKERTON. Fifteenth Thousand. Chicago: W. B. Keen, Cooke & Co., 113 and 115 State Street.
Chapter 1 of The Expressman and the Detective is here in full — 428 sentences across 86 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/85 · 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.
largest city in Illinois; a bustling Great Lakes port that extends 26 miles along the southwestern shoreline of Lake Michigan
From this reading “Chicago: W. B. Keen, Cooke & Co., 113 and 115 State Street.”
United States journalist (born in England in 1908)
From this reading “Chicago: W. B. Keen, Cooke & Co., 113 and 115 State Street.”
a police officer who investigates crimes
From this reading “Allan Pinkerton's Detective Stories.”
coming next after the fourteenth and just before the sixteenth in position
From this reading “Fifteenth Thousand.”
having or demonstrating ability to recognize or draw fine distinctions
From this reading “Chicago: W. B. Keen, Cooke & Co., 113 and 115 State Street.”
the territory occupied by one of the constituent administrative districts of a nation
From this reading “Chicago: W. B. Keen, Cooke & Co., 113 and 115 State Street.”
plural of “story” — 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 “Allan Pinkerton's Detective Stories.”
a thoroughfare (usually including sidewalks) that is lined with buildings
From this reading “Chicago: W. B. Keen, Cooke & Co., 113 and 115 State Street.”
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.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Chicago: W. B. Keen, Cooke & Co., 113 and 115 State Street.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Chicago: W. B. Keen, Cooke & Co., 113 and 115 State Street.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Allan Pinkerton's Detective Stories.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading THE EXPRESSMAN AND THE DETECTIVE.
aerobic rod-shaped spore-producing bacterium; often occurring in chainlike formations; found primarily in soil
From this reading Chicago: W. B. Keen, Cooke & Co., 113 and 115 State Street.
largest city in Illinois; a bustling Great Lakes port that extends 26 miles along the southwestern shoreline of Lake Michigan
From this reading Chicago: W. B. Keen, Cooke & Co., 113 and 115 State Street.
an odorless very poisonous gas that is a product of incomplete combustion of carbon
From this reading Chicago: W. B. Keen, Cooke & Co., 113 and 115 State Street.
United States journalist (born in England in 1908)
From this reading Chicago: W. B. Keen, Cooke & Co., 113 and 115 State Street.
a police officer who investigates crimes
From this reading Allan Pinkerton's Detective Stories.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading THE EXPRESSMAN AND THE DETECTIVE.
coming next after the fourteenth and just before the sixteenth in position
From this reading Fifteenth Thousand.
having or demonstrating ability to recognize or draw fine distinctions
From this reading Chicago: W. B. Keen, Cooke & Co., 113 and 115 State Street.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading ALLAN PINKERTON.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Allan Pinkerton's Detective Stories.
the territory occupied by one of the constituent administrative districts of a nation
From this reading Chicago: W. B. Keen, Cooke & Co., 113 and 115 State Street.
plural of “story” — 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 Allan Pinkerton's Detective Stories.
a thoroughfare (usually including sidewalks) that is lined with buildings
From this reading Chicago: W. B. Keen, Cooke & Co., 113 and 115 State Street.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading THE EXPRESSMAN AND THE DETECTIVE.
the cardinal number that is the product of 10 and 100
From this reading Fifteenth Thousand.
a heavy grey-white metallic element; the pure form is used mainly in electrical applications; it is found in several ores including wolframite and scheelite
From this reading Chicago: W. B. Keen, Cooke & Co., 113 and 115 State Street.
Chapter 1 of The Expressman and the Detective by Allan Pinkerton holds 428 sentences, grouped into 86 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 428 sentences of The Expressman and the Detective, unabridged, divided into 86 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 1 of The Expressman and the Detective by Allan Pinkerton exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 428 sentences, grouped into 86 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 86 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 86 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 Expressman and the Detective by Allan Pinkerton on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 3741 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #22155 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #22155, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 311 minutes of reading across 749 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Expressman and the Detective section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 9 chapters of The Expressman and the Detective 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 Expressman and the Detective, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
