Chapter 2 of The Jay Bird Who Went Tame is here in full — 134 sentences across 27 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter II
Chapter 2 of The Jay Bird Who Went Tame is here in full — 134 sentences across 27 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Bang! Smash! Crash! Splash! The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.
Chapter 2 of The Jay Bird Who Went Tame is here in full — 134 sentences across 27 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/26 · 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.
strike violently
From this reading “Bang!”
fall or come down violently
From this reading “Crash!”
nonperformance of something distasteful (as by deceit or trickery) that you are supposed to do
From this reading “The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.”
abrupt electric discharge from cloud to cloud or from cloud to earth accompanied by the emission of light
From this reading “The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.”
past form of “roar” — make a loud noise, as of wind, water, or vehicles
From this reading “The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.”
-ing form of “scuttle” — to move about or proceed hurriedly
From this reading “The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.”
hit hard
From this reading “Smash!”
cause (a liquid) to spatter about, especially with force
From this reading “Splash!”
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 thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.”
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 thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.
from one side of something to the other
From this reading The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.
at the same time that; because; in the way that
From this reading The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.
strike violently
From this reading Bang!
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.
fall or come down violently
From this reading Crash!
nonperformance of something distasteful (as by deceit or trickery) that you are supposed to do
From this reading The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.
come upon, as if by accident; meet with
From this reading The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.
prevent from being seen or discovered
From this reading The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.
a thing, animal, or idea already mentioned
From this reading The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.
belonging to the thing or animal already mentioned
From this reading The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.
abrupt electric discharge from cloud to cloud or from cloud to earth accompanied by the emission of light
From this reading The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.
used to mean any person in general, including the speaker
From this reading The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.
have ownership or possession of
From this reading The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.
a point located with respect to surface features of some region
From this reading The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.
past form of “roar” — make a loud noise, as of wind, water, or vehicles
From this reading The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.
-ing form of “scuttle” — to move about or proceed hurriedly
From this reading The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.
the atmosphere and outer space as viewed from the earth
From this reading The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.
hit hard
From this reading Smash!
cause (a liquid) to spatter about, especially with force
From this reading Splash!
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.
in spite of the fact that
From this reading The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.
move fast, noisily, and heavily
From this reading The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.
desired or wished for or sought
From this reading The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.
inflected form of “go” — change location; move, travel, or proceed, also metaphorically
From this reading The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one.
Chapter 2 of The Jay Bird Who Went Tame by John Breck holds 134 sentences, grouped into 27 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 2 holds 134 sentences of The Jay Bird Who Went Tame, unabridged, divided into 27 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 2 of The Jay Bird Who Went Tame by John Breck exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 134 sentences, grouped into 27 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 27 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 27 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 2 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 Jay Bird Who Went Tame by John Breck on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 1197 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #64586 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #64586, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 99 minutes of reading across 240 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Jay Bird Who Went Tame section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 10 chapters of The Jay Bird Who Went Tame 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 Jay Bird Who Went Tame, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
