Chapter 7 of The house without a key is here in full — 426 sentences across 86 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter VII
Chapter 7 of The house without a key is here in full — 426 sentences across 86 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
ENTER CHARLIE CHAN Miss Minerva leaned far over, her keen eyes seeking Dan's face. It was turned toward the wall, half buried in the pillow. "Dan," she said brokenly. She put her hand on his cheek. The night air was warm and muggy, but she shivered a little as she drew the hand quickly away.
Chapter 7 of The house without a key is here in full — 426 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.
placed in a grave
From this reading “It was turned toward the wall, half buried in the pillow.”
either side of the face below the eyes
From this reading “She put her hand on his cheek.”
having or demonstrating ability to recognize or draw fine distinctions
From this reading “ENTER CHARLIE CHAN Miss Minerva leaned far over, her keen eyes seeking Dan's face.”
(Roman mythology) goddess of wisdom; counterpart of Greek Athena
From this reading “ENTER CHARLIE CHAN Miss Minerva leaned far over, her keen eyes seeking Dan's face.”
hot or warm and humid
From this reading “The night air was warm and muggy, but she shivered a little as she drew the hand quickly away.”
a cushion to support the head of a sleeping person
From this reading “It was turned toward the wall, half buried in the pillow.”
the act of searching for something
From this reading “ENTER CHARLIE CHAN Miss Minerva leaned far over, her keen eyes seeking Dan's face.”
past form of “shiver” — tremble convulsively, as from fear or excitement
From this reading “The night air was warm and muggy, but she shivered a little as she drew the hand quickly away.”
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 “ENTER CHARLIE CHAN Miss Minerva leaned far over, her keen eyes seeking Dan's face.”
In this reading “The night air was warm and muggy, but she shivered a little as she drew the hand quickly away.”
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 The night air was warm and muggy, but she shivered a little as she drew the hand quickly away.
a mixture of gases (especially oxygen) required for breathing; the stuff that the wind consists of
From this reading The night air was warm and muggy, but she shivered a little as she drew the hand quickly away.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading The night air was warm and muggy, but she shivered a little as she drew the hand quickly away.
at the same time that; because; in the way that
From this reading The night air was warm and muggy, but she shivered a little as she drew the hand quickly away.
from a particular thing or place or position (“forth” is obsolete)
From this reading The night air was warm and muggy, but she shivered a little as she drew the hand quickly away.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading "Dan," she said brokenly.
placed in a grave
From this reading It was turned toward the wall, half buried in the pillow.
used to introduce something that contrasts with what came before
From this reading The night air was warm and muggy, but she shivered a little as she drew the hand quickly away.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading ENTER CHARLIE CHAN Miss Minerva leaned far over, her keen eyes seeking Dan's face.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading ENTER CHARLIE CHAN Miss Minerva leaned far over, her keen eyes seeking Dan's face.
either side of the face below the eyes
From this reading She put her hand on his cheek.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading "Dan," she said brokenly.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading ENTER CHARLIE CHAN Miss Minerva leaned far over, her keen eyes seeking Dan's face.
United States actor (born in Ireland); father of Georgiana Emma Barrymore (1827-1862)
From this reading The night air was warm and muggy, but she shivered a little as she drew the hand quickly away.
to come or go into
From this reading ENTER CHARLIE CHAN Miss Minerva leaned far over, her keen eyes seeking Dan's face.
opinion or judgment
From this reading ENTER CHARLIE CHAN Miss Minerva leaned far over, her keen eyes seeking Dan's face.
the front of the human head from the forehead to the chin and ear to ear
From this reading ENTER CHARLIE CHAN Miss Minerva leaned far over, her keen eyes seeking Dan's face.
to a considerable degree; very much
From this reading ENTER CHARLIE CHAN Miss Minerva leaned far over, her keen eyes seeking Dan's face.
consisting of one of two equivalent parts in value or quantity
From this reading It was turned toward the wall, half buried in the pillow.
the (prehensile) extremity of the superior limb
From this reading She put her hand on his cheek.
belonging to a woman, girl, or female animal already mentioned
From this reading ENTER CHARLIE CHAN Miss Minerva leaned far over, her keen eyes seeking Dan's face.
belonging to a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned
From this reading She put her hand on his cheek.
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading It was turned toward the wall, half buried in the pillow.
a thing, animal, or idea already mentioned
From this reading It was turned toward the wall, half buried in the pillow.
having or demonstrating ability to recognize or draw fine distinctions
From this reading ENTER CHARLIE CHAN Miss Minerva leaned far over, her keen eyes seeking Dan's face.
past form of “lean” — to incline or bend from a vertical position
From this reading ENTER CHARLIE CHAN Miss Minerva leaned far over, her keen eyes seeking Dan's face.
limited or below average in number or quantity or magnitude or extent
From this reading The night air was warm and muggy, but she shivered a little as she drew the hand quickly away.
(Roman mythology) goddess of wisdom; counterpart of Greek Athena
From this reading ENTER CHARLIE CHAN Miss Minerva leaned far over, her keen eyes seeking Dan's face.
fail to perceive or to catch with the senses or the mind
From this reading ENTER CHARLIE CHAN Miss Minerva leaned far over, her keen eyes seeking Dan's face.
hot or warm and humid
From this reading The night air was warm and muggy, but she shivered a little as she drew the hand quickly away.
the time after sunset and before sunrise while it is dark outside
From this reading The night air was warm and muggy, but she shivered a little as she drew the hand quickly away.
touching and supported by a surface
From this reading She put her hand on his cheek.
above and across; more than
From this reading ENTER CHARLIE CHAN Miss Minerva leaned far over, her keen eyes seeking Dan's face.
a cushion to support the head of a sleeping person
From this reading It was turned toward the wall, half buried in the pillow.
put into a certain place or abstract location
From this reading She put her hand on his cheek.
with speed
From this reading The night air was warm and muggy, but she shivered a little as she drew the hand quickly away.
being the one previously mentioned or spoken of
From this reading "Dan," she said brokenly.
the act of searching for something
From this reading ENTER CHARLIE CHAN Miss Minerva leaned far over, her keen eyes seeking Dan's face.
a woman, girl, or female animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading "Dan," she said brokenly.
past form of “shiver” — tremble convulsively, as from fear or excitement
From this reading The night air was warm and muggy, but she shivered a little as she drew the hand quickly away.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading It was turned toward the wall, half buried in the pillow.
in the direction of
From this reading It was turned toward the wall, half buried in the pillow.
moved around an axis or center
From this reading It was turned toward the wall, half buried in the pillow.
an architectural partition with a height and length greater than its thickness; used to divide or enclose an area or to support another structure
From this reading It was turned toward the wall, half buried in the pillow.
having or producing a comfortable and agreeable degree of heat or imparting or maintaining heat
From this reading The night air was warm and muggy, but she shivered a little as she drew the hand quickly away.
the past form of “be” used with I, he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading It was turned toward the wall, half buried in the pillow.
Chapter 7 of The house without a key by Earl Derr Biggers holds 426 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 7 holds 426 sentences of The house without a key, unabridged, divided into 86 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 7 of The house without a key by Earl Derr Biggers exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 426 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 7 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 house without a key by Earl Derr Biggers 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 house without a key section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 0 chapters of The house without a key 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 house without a key, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
