Chapter 21 of The Lock and Key Library — Modern English is here in full — 197 sentences across 40 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter XXI
Chapter 21 of The Lock and Key Library — Modern English is here in full — 197 sentences across 40 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
"Percy! come here!" Her voice is eager and agitated. She has opened a last door at the end of the yard, and has started back from some sight which has suddenly met her view. I hitch the horses' bridles on a rusty nail in the wall near me, and join my wife. She has turned pale, and catches me nervously by the arm.
Chapter 21 of The Lock and Key Library — Modern English is here in full — 197 sentences across 40 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/39 · 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.
troubled emotionally and usually deeply
From this reading “Her voice is eager and agitated.”
plural of “catch” — a drawback or difficulty that is not readily evident
From this reading “She has turned pale, and catches me nervously by the arm.”
to hook or entangle
From this reading “I hitch the horses' bridles on a rusty nail in the wall near me, and join my wife.”
attach something somewhere by means of nails
From this reading “I hitch the horses' bridles on a rusty nail in the wall near me, and join my wife.”
in an anxiously nervous manner
From this reading “She has turned pale, and catches me nervously by the arm.”
United States writer whose novels explored human alienation (1916-1990)
From this reading “"Percy! come here!"”
covered with or consisting of rust
From this reading “I hitch the horses' bridles on a rusty nail in the wall near me, and join my wife.”
a unit of length equal to 3 feet; defined as 91.44 centimeters; originally taken to be the average length of a stride
From this reading “She has opened a last door at the end of the yard, and has started back from some sight which has suddenly met her view.”
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 She has opened a last door at the end of the yard, and has started back from some sight which has suddenly met her view.
troubled emotionally and usually deeply
From this reading Her voice is eager and agitated.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading Her voice is eager and agitated.
a human limb; technically the part of the superior limb between the shoulder and the elbow but commonly used to refer to the whole superior limb
From this reading She has turned pale, and catches me nervously by the arm.
in or near a particular place or position
From this reading She has opened a last door at the end of the yard, and has started back from some sight which has suddenly met her view.
in or to or toward a former location
From this reading She has opened a last door at the end of the yard, and has started back from some sight which has suddenly met her view.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading I hitch the horses' bridles on a rusty nail in the wall near me, and join my wife.
showing who or what does the action
From this reading She has turned pale, and catches me nervously by the arm.
plural of “catch” — a drawback or difficulty that is not readily evident
From this reading She has turned pale, and catches me nervously by the arm.
move toward, travel toward something or somebody or approach something or somebody
From this reading "Percy! come here!"
a swinging or sliding barrier that will close the entrance to a room or building or vehicle
From this reading She has opened a last door at the end of the yard, and has started back from some sight which has suddenly met her view.
having or showing keen interest or intense desire or impatient expectancy
From this reading Her voice is eager and agitated.
either extremity of something that has length
From this reading She has opened a last door at the end of the yard, and has started back from some sight which has suddenly met her view.
showing where something starts, or who sent it
From this reading She has opened a last door at the end of the yard, and has started back from some sight which has suddenly met her view.
the form of “have” used with he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading She has opened a last door at the end of the yard, and has started back from some sight which has suddenly met her view.
belonging to a woman, girl, or female animal already mentioned
From this reading Her voice is eager and agitated.
in or at this place; where the speaker or writer is
From this reading "Percy! come here!"
to hook or entangle
From this reading I hitch the horses' bridles on a rusty nail in the wall near me, and join my wife.
plural of “horse” — solid-hoofed herbivorous quadruped domesticated since prehistoric times
From this reading I hitch the horses' bridles on a rusty nail in the wall near me, and join my wife.
the person speaking or writing, as the subject of the verb
From this reading I hitch the horses' bridles on a rusty nail in the wall near me, and join my wife.
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading I hitch the horses' bridles on a rusty nail in the wall near me, and join my wife.
the form of “be” used with he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading Her voice is eager and agitated.
become part of; become a member of a group or organization
From this reading I hitch the horses' bridles on a rusty nail in the wall near me, and join my wife.
immediately past
From this reading She has opened a last door at the end of the yard, and has started back from some sight which has suddenly met her view.
the person speaking, as the object of a verb or preposition
From this reading I hitch the horses' bridles on a rusty nail in the wall near me, and join my wife.
inflected form of “meet” — come together
From this reading She has opened a last door at the end of the yard, and has started back from some sight which has suddenly met her view.
belonging to the person speaking
From this reading I hitch the horses' bridles on a rusty nail in the wall near me, and join my wife.
attach something somewhere by means of nails
From this reading I hitch the horses' bridles on a rusty nail in the wall near me, and join my wife.
near in time or place or relationship
From this reading I hitch the horses' bridles on a rusty nail in the wall near me, and join my wife.
in an anxiously nervous manner
From this reading She has turned pale, and catches me nervously by the arm.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading She has opened a last door at the end of the yard, and has started back from some sight which has suddenly met her view.
touching and supported by a surface
From this reading I hitch the horses' bridles on a rusty nail in the wall near me, and join my wife.
used of mouth or eyes
From this reading She has opened a last door at the end of the yard, and has started back from some sight which has suddenly met her view.
very light colored; highly diluted with white
From this reading She has turned pale, and catches me nervously by the arm.
United States writer whose novels explored human alienation (1916-1990)
From this reading "Percy! come here!"
covered with or consisting of rust
From this reading I hitch the horses' bridles on a rusty nail in the wall near me, and join my wife.
a woman, girl, or female animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading She has opened a last door at the end of the yard, and has started back from some sight which has suddenly met her view.
an instance of visual perception
From this reading She has opened a last door at the end of the yard, and has started back from some sight which has suddenly met her view.
(quantifier) used with either mass nouns or plural count nouns to indicate an unspecified number or quantity
From this reading She has opened a last door at the end of the yard, and has started back from some sight which has suddenly met her view.
past form of “start” — take the first step or steps in carrying out an action
From this reading She has opened a last door at the end of the yard, and has started back from some sight which has suddenly met her view.
happening unexpectedly
From this reading She has opened a last door at the end of the yard, and has started back from some sight which has suddenly met her view.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading She has opened a last door at the end of the yard, and has started back from some sight which has suddenly met her view.
moved around an axis or center
From this reading She has turned pale, and catches me nervously by the arm.
a way of regarding situations or topics etc.
From this reading She has opened a last door at the end of the yard, and has started back from some sight which has suddenly met her view.
the distinctive quality or pitch or condition of a person's speech
From this reading Her voice is eager and agitated.
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 I hitch the horses' bridles on a rusty nail in the wall near me, and join my wife.
used to introduce a clause giving more about a thing just mentioned
From this reading She has opened a last door at the end of the yard, and has started back from some sight which has suddenly met her view.
a married woman; a man's partner in marriage
From this reading I hitch the horses' bridles on a rusty nail in the wall near me, and join my wife.
a unit of length equal to 3 feet; defined as 91.44 centimeters; originally taken to be the average length of a stride
From this reading She has opened a last door at the end of the yard, and has started back from some sight which has suddenly met her view.
Chapter 21 of The Lock and Key Library — Modern English by Julian [Editor] Hawthorne holds 197 sentences, grouped into 40 reading sections of at most 5 sentences. The text is the public-domain source, 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 21 holds 197 sentences of The Lock and Key Library — Modern English, unabridged, divided into 40 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 21 of The Lock and Key Library — Modern English by Julian [Editor] Hawthorne exactly as it stands in the public-domain source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 197 sentences, grouped into 40 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 40 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 40 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 21 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 Lock and Key Library — Modern English by Julian [Editor] Hawthorne on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 8025 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #2038 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #2038, a public-domain edition. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 600 minutes of reading across 1605 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Lock and Key Library — Modern English section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 40 chapters of The Lock and Key Library — Modern English 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 Lock and Key Library — Modern English, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
