Chapter 1 of The Illustrated London Reading Book is here in full — 569 sentences across 114 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter I
Chapter 1 of The Illustrated London Reading Book is here in full — 569 sentences across 114 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
198, STRAND. INTRODUCTION. To read and speak with elegance and ease, Are arts polite that never fail to please; Yet in those arts how very few excel! Ten thousand men may read--not one read well. Though all mankind are speakers in a sense, How few can soar to heights of eloquence!
Chapter 1 of The Illustrated London Reading Book is here in full — 569 sentences across 114 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/113 · 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 refined quality of gracefulness and good taste
From this reading “To read and speak with elegance and ease, Are arts polite that never fail to please; Yet in those arts how very few excel!”
Fluent, persuasive, and graceful speaking or writing. (Sự hùng biện, tài ăn nói lưu loát.)
From this reading “Though all mankind are speakers in a sense, How few can soar to heights of eloquence!”
distinguish oneself
From this reading “To read and speak with elegance and ease, Are arts polite that never fail to please; Yet in those arts how very few excel!”
a high place
From this reading “Though all mankind are speakers in a sense, How few can soar to heights of eloquence!”
the act of beginning something new
From this reading “INTRODUCTION.”
rise rapidly
From this reading “Though all mankind are speakers in a sense, How few can soar to heights of eloquence!”
plural of “speaker” — someone who expresses in language; someone who talks (especially someone who delivers a public speech or someone especially garrulous)
From this reading “Though all mankind are speakers in a sense, How few can soar to heights of eloquence!”
a pattern forming a unity within a larger structural whole
From this reading “198, STRAND.”
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 198, STRAND.
used before a singular noun to mean one of a group, when it is not a particular one
From this reading Though all mankind are speakers in a sense, How few can soar to heights of eloquence!
(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 Though all mankind are speakers in a sense, How few can soar to heights of eloquence!
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading To read and speak with elegance and ease, Are arts polite that never fail to please; Yet in those arts how very few excel!
the form of “be” used with you, we, they, or a plural noun
From this reading To read and speak with elegance and ease, Are arts polite that never fail to please; Yet in those arts how very few excel!
studies intended to provide general knowledge and intellectual skills (rather than occupational or professional skills)
From this reading To read and speak with elegance and ease, Are arts polite that never fail to please; Yet in those arts how very few excel!
to be able to, or to be allowed to
From this reading Though all mankind are speakers in a sense, How few can soar to heights of eloquence!
move gently or carefully
From this reading To read and speak with elegance and ease, Are arts polite that never fail to please; Yet in those arts how very few excel!
a refined quality of gracefulness and good taste
From this reading To read and speak with elegance and ease, Are arts polite that never fail to please; Yet in those arts how very few excel!
Fluent, persuasive, and graceful speaking or writing. (Sự hùng biện, tài ăn nói lưu loát.)
From this reading Though all mankind are speakers in a sense, How few can soar to heights of eloquence!
distinguish oneself
From this reading To read and speak with elegance and ease, Are arts polite that never fail to please; Yet in those arts how very few excel!
fail to do something; leave something undone
From this reading To read and speak with elegance and ease, Are arts polite that never fail to please; Yet in those arts how very few excel!
a quantifier that can be used with count nouns and is often preceded by “a”; a small but indefinite number
From this reading To read and speak with elegance and ease, Are arts polite that never fail to please; Yet in those arts how very few excel!
a high place
From this reading Though all mankind are speakers in a sense, How few can soar to heights of eloquence!
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading To read and speak with elegance and ease, Are arts polite that never fail to please; Yet in those arts how very few excel!
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading To read and speak with elegance and ease, Are arts polite that never fail to please; Yet in those arts how very few excel!
the act of beginning something new
From this reading INTRODUCTION.
all of the living human inhabitants of the earth
From this reading Though all mankind are speakers in a sense, How few can soar to heights of eloquence!
used to say something is possible, or to give permission
From this reading Ten thousand men may read--not one read well.
the force of workers available
From this reading Ten thousand men may read--not one read well.
not ever; at no time in the past or future
From this reading To read and speak with elegance and ease, Are arts polite that never fail to please; Yet in those arts how very few excel!
used to make a word, phrase, or sentence negative
From this reading Ten thousand men may read--not one read well.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading Though all mankind are speakers in a sense, How few can soar to heights of eloquence!
used to mean any person in general, including the speaker
From this reading Ten thousand men may read--not one read well.
give pleasure to or be pleasing to
From this reading To read and speak with elegance and ease, Are arts polite that never fail to please; Yet in those arts how very few excel!
showing regard for others in manners, speech, behavior, etc.
From this reading To read and speak with elegance and ease, Are arts polite that never fail to please; Yet in those arts how very few excel!
interpret something that is written or printed
From this reading To read and speak with elegance and ease, Are arts polite that never fail to please; Yet in those arts how very few excel!
a general conscious awareness
From this reading Though all mankind are speakers in a sense, How few can soar to heights of eloquence!
rise rapidly
From this reading Though all mankind are speakers in a sense, How few can soar to heights of eloquence!
express in speech
From this reading To read and speak with elegance and ease, Are arts polite that never fail to please; Yet in those arts how very few excel!
plural of “speaker” — someone who expresses in language; someone who talks (especially someone who delivers a public speech or someone especially garrulous)
From this reading Though all mankind are speakers in a sense, How few can soar to heights of eloquence!
a pattern forming a unity within a larger structural whole
From this reading 198, STRAND.
the cardinal number that is the sum of nine and one; the base of the decimal system
From this reading Ten thousand men may read--not one read well.
used to introduce what somebody said, thought, or felt
From this reading To read and speak with elegance and ease, Are arts polite that never fail to please; Yet in those arts how very few excel!
the plural of “that”: the people or things further away, or already known
From this reading To read and speak with elegance and ease, Are arts polite that never fail to please; Yet in those arts how very few excel!
in spite of the fact that
From this reading Though all mankind are speakers in a sense, How few can soar to heights of eloquence!
the cardinal number that is the product of 10 and 100
From this reading Ten thousand men may read--not one read well.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading To read and speak with elegance and ease, Are arts polite that never fail to please; Yet in those arts how very few excel!
precisely as stated
From this reading To read and speak with elegance and ease, Are arts polite that never fail to please; Yet in those arts how very few excel!
(often used as a combining form) in a good or proper or satisfactory manner or to a high standard (“good” is a nonstandard dialectal variant for “well”)
From this reading Ten thousand men may read--not one read well.
in the company of; together with
From this reading To read and speak with elegance and ease, Are arts polite that never fail to please; Yet in those arts how very few excel!
but in spite of that
From this reading To read and speak with elegance and ease, Are arts polite that never fail to please; Yet in those arts how very few excel!
Chapter 1 of The Illustrated London Reading Book by Various holds 569 sentences, grouped into 114 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 569 sentences of The Illustrated London Reading Book, unabridged, divided into 114 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 1 of The Illustrated London Reading Book by Various exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 569 sentences, grouped into 114 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 114 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 114 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.
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Words and structures a reader meets early in The Illustrated London Reading Book, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
