Chapter 15 of The humour of Russia is here in full — 390 sentences across 78 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter XV
Chapter 15 of The humour of Russia is here in full — 390 sentences across 78 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
“Peasant, peasant, why art thou all roughened and blistered like oak-bark?” “I have gained a kopeck.” The bird whistled and flew away, saying to herself, “I’m glad I’m not a peasant.” He walked on, and the river fish asked him— “Peasant, peasant, why art thou as thin as a herring?” “I have gained a kopeck.”
Chapter 15 of The humour of Russia is here in full — 390 sentences across 78 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/78 · 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.
warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrates characterized by feathers and forelimbs modified as wings
From this reading “The bird whistled and flew away, saying to herself, “I’m glad I’m not a peasant.””
past form of “blister” — get blistered
From this reading ““Peasant, peasant, why art thou all roughened and blistered like oak-bark?””
any of various mostly cold-blooded aquatic vertebrates usually having scales and breathing through gills
From this reading “He walked on, and the river fish asked him— “Peasant, peasant, why art thou as thin as a herring?””
inflected form of “fly” — travel through the air; be airborne
From this reading “The bird whistled and flew away, saying to herself, “I’m glad I’m not a peasant.””
past form of “gain” — obtain
From this reading ““I have gained a kopeck.””
valuable flesh of fatty fish from shallow waters of northern Atlantic or Pacific; usually salted or pickled
From this reading “He walked on, and the river fish asked him— “Peasant, peasant, why art thou as thin as a herring?””
a country person
From this reading ““Peasant, peasant, why art thou all roughened and blistered like oak-bark?””
past form of “whistle” — make whistling sounds
From this reading “The bird whistled and flew away, saying to herself, “I’m glad I’m not a peasant.””
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 “The bird whistled and flew away, saying to herself, “I’m glad I’m not a peasant.””
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 “I have gained a kopeck.”
(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 “Peasant, peasant, why art thou all roughened and blistered like oak-bark?”
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading “Peasant, peasant, why art thou all roughened and blistered like oak-bark?”
an old form of “are”, used with “thou”
From this reading “Peasant, peasant, why art thou all roughened and blistered like oak-bark?”
at the same time that; because; in the way that
From this reading He walked on, and the river fish asked him— “Peasant, peasant, why art thou as thin as a herring?”
past form of “ask” — make a request or demand for something to somebody
From this reading He walked on, and the river fish asked him— “Peasant, peasant, why art thou as thin as a herring?”
from a particular thing or place or position (“forth” is obsolete)
From this reading The bird whistled and flew away, saying to herself, “I’m glad I’m not a peasant.”
warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrates characterized by feathers and forelimbs modified as wings
From this reading The bird whistled and flew away, saying to herself, “I’m glad I’m not a peasant.”
past form of “blister” — get blistered
From this reading “Peasant, peasant, why art thou all roughened and blistered like oak-bark?”
any of various mostly cold-blooded aquatic vertebrates usually having scales and breathing through gills
From this reading He walked on, and the river fish asked him— “Peasant, peasant, why art thou as thin as a herring?”
inflected form of “fly” — travel through the air; be airborne
From this reading The bird whistled and flew away, saying to herself, “I’m glad I’m not a peasant.”
past form of “gain” — obtain
From this reading “I have gained a kopeck.”
showing or causing joy and pleasure; especially made happy
From this reading The bird whistled and flew away, saying to herself, “I’m glad I’m not a peasant.”
used with a past participle to form the perfect tenses
From this reading “I have gained a kopeck.”
a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading He walked on, and the river fish asked him— “Peasant, peasant, why art thou as thin as a herring?”
valuable flesh of fatty fish from shallow waters of northern Atlantic or Pacific; usually salted or pickled
From this reading He walked on, and the river fish asked him— “Peasant, peasant, why art thou as thin as a herring?”
used when the woman or girl doing the action is also its object
From this reading The bird whistled and flew away, saying to herself, “I’m glad I’m not a peasant.”
the male already mentioned, as the object of a verb or preposition
From this reading He walked on, and the river fish asked him— “Peasant, peasant, why art thou as thin as a herring?”
the person speaking or writing, as the subject of the verb
From this reading “I have gained a kopeck.”
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading The bird whistled and flew away, saying to herself, “I’m glad I’m not a peasant.”
100 kopecks equal 1 ruble in Russia
From this reading “I have gained a kopeck.”
prefer or wish to do something
From this reading “Peasant, peasant, why art thou all roughened and blistered like oak-bark?”
used to make a word, phrase, or sentence negative
From this reading The bird whistled and flew away, saying to herself, “I’m glad I’m not a peasant.”
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading “Peasant, peasant, why art thou all roughened and blistered like oak-bark?”
touching and supported by a surface
From this reading He walked on, and the river fish asked him— “Peasant, peasant, why art thou as thin as a herring?”
a country person
From this reading “Peasant, peasant, why art thou all roughened and blistered like oak-bark?”
a large natural stream of water (larger than a creek)
From this reading He walked on, and the river fish asked him— “Peasant, peasant, why art thou as thin as a herring?”
used of skin roughened as a result of cold or exposure
From this reading “Peasant, peasant, why art thou all roughened and blistered like oak-bark?”
a word or phrase that particular people use in particular situations
From this reading The bird whistled and flew away, saying to herself, “I’m glad I’m not a peasant.”
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading The bird whistled and flew away, saying to herself, “I’m glad I’m not a peasant.”
Having little thickness or extent.
From this reading He walked on, and the river fish asked him— “Peasant, peasant, why art thou as thin as a herring?”
an old word for “you”, as the subject, speaking to one person
From this reading “Peasant, peasant, why art thou all roughened and blistered like oak-bark?”
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading The bird whistled and flew away, saying to herself, “I’m glad I’m not a peasant.”
past form of “walk” — use one's feet to advance; advance by steps
From this reading He walked on, and the river fish asked him— “Peasant, peasant, why art thou as thin as a herring?”
past form of “whistle” — make whistling sounds
From this reading The bird whistled and flew away, saying to herself, “I’m glad I’m not a peasant.”
the cause or intention underlying an action or situation, especially in the phrase “the whys and wherefores”
From this reading “Peasant, peasant, why art thou all roughened and blistered like oak-bark?”
Chapter 15 of The humour of Russia by E. L. (Ethel Lillian) [Translator] Voynich holds 390 sentences, grouped into 78 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 15 holds 390 sentences of The humour of Russia, unabridged, divided into 78 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 15 of The humour of Russia by E. L. (Ethel Lillian) [Translator] Voynich exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 390 sentences, grouped into 78 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 78 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 78 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 15 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.
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Project Gutenberg eBook #?, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
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How to work through The humour of Russia section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
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Play the section aloud, then tap any unfamiliar word for its entry.
Words and structures a reader meets early in The humour of Russia, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
