Chapter 12 of The Master of St. Benedict's, Vol. 2 (of 2) is here in full — 141 sentences across 29 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter XII
Chapter 12 of The Master of St. Benedict's, Vol. 2 (of 2) is here in full — 141 sentences across 29 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
COUSIN MARY. Lucy couldn't do things like other girls. She couldn't go straight to Cousin Mary and tell her that the Senior Tutor, the new Master of St. Benedict's, had asked her to be his wife. There was no reason why she shouldn't have told Cousin Mary. She had no one else to tell.
Chapter 12 of The Master of St. Benedict's, Vol. 2 (of 2) is here in full — 141 sentences across 29 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/28 · 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.
the child of your aunt or uncle
From this reading “COUSIN MARY.”
plural of “girl” — a young female
From this reading “Lucy couldn't do things like other girls.”
incomplete skeleton of female found in eastern Ethiopia in 1974
From this reading “Lucy couldn't do things like other girls.”
the mother of Jesus; Christians refer to her as the Virgin Mary; she is especially honored by Roman Catholics
From this reading “COUSIN MARY.”
an artist of consummate skill
From this reading “She couldn't go straight to Cousin Mary and tell her that the Senior Tutor, the new Master of St. Benedict's, had asked her to be his wife.”
older; higher in rank; longer in length of tenure or service
From this reading “She couldn't go straight to Cousin Mary and tell her that the Senior Tutor, the new Master of St. Benedict's, had asked her to be his wife.”
successive (without a break)
From this reading “She couldn't go straight to Cousin Mary and tell her that the Senior Tutor, the new Master of St. Benedict's, had asked her to be his wife.”
be a tutor to someone; give individual instruction
From this reading “She couldn't go straight to Cousin Mary and tell her that the Senior Tutor, the new Master of St. Benedict's, had asked her to be his wife.”
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 “There was no reason why she shouldn't have told Cousin Mary.”
In this reading “She couldn't go straight to Cousin Mary and tell her that the Senior Tutor, the new Master of St. Benedict's, had asked her to be his wife.”
In this reading “Lucy couldn't do things like other girls.”
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 to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading She couldn't go straight to Cousin Mary and tell her that the Senior Tutor, the new Master of St. Benedict's, had asked her to be his wife.
past form of “ask” — make a request or demand for something to somebody
From this reading She couldn't go straight to Cousin Mary and tell her that the Senior Tutor, the new Master of St. Benedict's, had asked her to be his wife.
used with a past participle to form the passive, or with -ing for continuous tenses
From this reading She couldn't go straight to Cousin Mary and tell her that the Senior Tutor, the new Master of St. Benedict's, had asked her to be his wife.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading She couldn't go straight to Cousin Mary and tell her that the Senior Tutor, the new Master of St. Benedict's, had asked her to be his wife.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Lucy couldn't do things like other girls.
the child of your aunt or uncle
From this reading COUSIN MARY.
used to form questions and negatives, and to give emphasis
From this reading Lucy couldn't do things like other girls.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading She had no one else to tell.
plural of “girl” — a young female
From this reading Lucy couldn't do things like other girls.
change location; move, travel, or proceed, also metaphorically
From this reading She couldn't go straight to Cousin Mary and tell her that the Senior Tutor, the new Master of St. Benedict's, had asked her to be his wife.
the past form of “have”, used to form the past perfect
From this reading She couldn't go straight to Cousin Mary and tell her that the Senior Tutor, the new Master of St. Benedict's, had asked her to be his wife.
used with a past participle to form the perfect tenses
From this reading There was no reason why she shouldn't have told Cousin Mary.
belonging to a woman, girl, or female animal already mentioned
From this reading She couldn't go straight to Cousin Mary and tell her that the Senior Tutor, the new Master of St. Benedict's, had asked her to be his wife.
belonging to a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned
From this reading She couldn't go straight to Cousin Mary and tell her that the Senior Tutor, the new Master of St. Benedict's, had asked her to be his wife.
prefer or wish to do something
From this reading Lucy couldn't do things like other girls.
incomplete skeleton of female found in eastern Ethiopia in 1974
From this reading Lucy couldn't do things like other girls.
the mother of Jesus; Christians refer to her as the Virgin Mary; she is especially honored by Roman Catholics
From this reading COUSIN MARY.
an artist of consummate skill
From this reading She couldn't go straight to Cousin Mary and tell her that the Senior Tutor, the new Master of St. Benedict's, had asked her to be his wife.
not of long duration; having just (or relatively recently) come into being or been made or acquired or discovered
From this reading She couldn't go straight to Cousin Mary and tell her that the Senior Tutor, the new Master of St. Benedict's, had asked her to be his wife.
not any; not one
From this reading There was no reason why she shouldn't have told Cousin Mary.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading She couldn't go straight to Cousin Mary and tell her that the Senior Tutor, the new Master of St. Benedict's, had asked her to be his wife.
used to mean any person in general, including the speaker
From this reading She had no one else to tell.
not the same one or ones already mentioned or implied
From this reading Lucy couldn't do things like other girls.
a rational motive for a belief or action
From this reading There was no reason why she shouldn't have told Cousin Mary.
older; higher in rank; longer in length of tenure or service
From this reading She couldn't go straight to Cousin Mary and tell her that the Senior Tutor, the new Master of St. Benedict's, had asked her to be his wife.
a woman, girl, or female animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading She couldn't go straight to Cousin Mary and tell her that the Senior Tutor, the new Master of St. Benedict's, had asked her to be his wife.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading There was no reason why she shouldn't have told Cousin Mary.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading She couldn't go straight to Cousin Mary and tell her that the Senior Tutor, the new Master of St. Benedict's, had asked her to be his wife.
successive (without a break)
From this reading She couldn't go straight to Cousin Mary and tell her that the Senior Tutor, the new Master of St. Benedict's, had asked her to be his wife.
express in words
From this reading She couldn't go straight to Cousin Mary and tell her that the Senior Tutor, the new Master of St. Benedict's, had asked her to be his wife.
used to introduce what somebody said, thought, or felt
From this reading She couldn't go straight to Cousin Mary and tell her that the Senior Tutor, the new Master of St. Benedict's, had asked her to be his wife.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading She couldn't go straight to Cousin Mary and tell her that the Senior Tutor, the new Master of St. Benedict's, had asked her to be his wife.
in or at that place or location
From this reading There was no reason why she shouldn't have told Cousin Mary.
any movable possession (especially articles of clothing)
From this reading Lucy couldn't do things like other girls.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading She couldn't go straight to Cousin Mary and tell her that the Senior Tutor, the new Master of St. Benedict's, had asked her to be his wife.
inflected form of “tell” — express in words
From this reading There was no reason why she shouldn't have told Cousin Mary.
be a tutor to someone; give individual instruction
From this reading She couldn't go straight to Cousin Mary and tell her that the Senior Tutor, the new Master of St. Benedict's, had asked her to be his wife.
the past form of “be” used with I, he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading There was no reason why she shouldn't have told Cousin Mary.
the cause or intention underlying an action or situation, especially in the phrase “the whys and wherefores”
From this reading There was no reason why she shouldn't have told Cousin Mary.
a married woman; a man's partner in marriage
From this reading She couldn't go straight to Cousin Mary and tell her that the Senior Tutor, the new Master of St. Benedict's, had asked her to be his wife.
Chapter 12 of The Master of St. Benedict's, Vol. 2 (of 2) by Alan St. Aubyn holds 141 sentences, grouped into 29 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 12 holds 141 sentences of The Master of St. Benedict's, Vol. 2 (of 2), unabridged, divided into 29 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 12 of The Master of St. Benedict's, Vol. 2 (of 2) by Alan St. Aubyn exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 141 sentences, grouped into 29 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 29 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 29 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 12 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 Master of St. Benedict's, Vol. 2 (of 2) by Alan St. Aubyn on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 2064 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #58945 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #58945, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 172 minutes of reading across 413 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Master of St. Benedict's, Vol. 2 (of 2) section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 14 chapters of The Master of St. Benedict's, Vol. 2 (of 2) 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 Master of St. Benedict's, Vol. 2 (of 2), each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
