Chapter 8 of The mill of silence is here in full — 158 sentences across 32 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter VIII
Chapter 8 of The mill of silence is here in full — 158 sentences across 32 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
CONVICT, BUT NOT SENTENCED. So the blow had fallen! Yet a single despairing effort I made to beat off or at least postpone the inevitable. I sat up in bed and answered my brother back with, I could feel, ashen and quivering lips. “What do you mean?”
Chapter 8 of The mill of silence is here in full — 158 sentences across 32 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/31 · 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.
anemic looking from illness or emotion
From this reading “I sat up in bed and answered my brother back with, I could feel, ashen and quivering lips.”
come out better in a competition, race, or conflict
From this reading “Yet a single despairing effort I made to beat off or at least postpone the inevitable.”
a person serving a sentence in a jail or prison
From this reading “CONVICT, BUT NOT SENTENCED.”
arising from or marked by despair or loss of hope
From this reading “Yet a single despairing effort I made to beat off or at least postpone the inevitable.”
incapable of being avoided or prevented
From this reading “Yet a single despairing effort I made to beat off or at least postpone the inevitable.”
hold back to a later time
From this reading “Yet a single despairing effort I made to beat off or at least postpone the inevitable.”
a shaky motion
From this reading “I sat up in bed and answered my brother back with, I could feel, ashen and quivering lips.”
past form of “sentence” — pronounce a sentence on (somebody) in a court of law
From this reading “CONVICT, BUT NOT SENTENCED.”
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 “I sat up in bed and answered my brother back with, I could feel, ashen and quivering lips.”
In this reading “I sat up in bed and answered my brother back with, I could feel, ashen and quivering lips.”
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 Yet a single despairing effort I made to beat off or at least postpone the inevitable.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading I sat up in bed and answered my brother back with, I could feel, ashen and quivering lips.
past form of “answer” — react verbally
From this reading I sat up in bed and answered my brother back with, I could feel, ashen and quivering lips.
anemic looking from illness or emotion
From this reading I sat up in bed and answered my brother back with, I could feel, ashen and quivering lips.
in or near a particular place or position
From this reading Yet a single despairing effort I made to beat off or at least postpone the inevitable.
in or to or toward a former location
From this reading I sat up in bed and answered my brother back with, I could feel, ashen and quivering lips.
come out better in a competition, race, or conflict
From this reading Yet a single despairing effort I made to beat off or at least postpone the inevitable.
a piece of furniture that provides a place to sleep
From this reading I sat up in bed and answered my brother back with, I could feel, ashen and quivering lips.
exhale hard
From this reading So the blow had fallen!
a male with the same parents as someone else
From this reading I sat up in bed and answered my brother back with, I could feel, ashen and quivering lips.
used to introduce something that contrasts with what came before
From this reading CONVICT, BUT NOT SENTENCED.
a person serving a sentence in a jail or prison
From this reading CONVICT, BUT NOT SENTENCED.
the past of “can”; used for possibility or polite requests
From this reading I sat up in bed and answered my brother back with, I could feel, ashen and quivering lips.
arising from or marked by despair or loss of hope
From this reading Yet a single despairing effort I made to beat off or at least postpone the inevitable.
used to form questions and negatives, and to give emphasis
From this reading “What do you mean?”
earnest and conscientious activity intended to do or accomplish something
From this reading Yet a single despairing effort I made to beat off or at least postpone the inevitable.
having dropped by the force of gravity
From this reading So the blow had fallen!
undergo an emotional sensation or be in a particular state of mind
From this reading I sat up in bed and answered my brother back with, I could feel, ashen and quivering lips.
the past form of “have”, used to form the past perfect
From this reading So the blow had fallen!
the person speaking or writing, as the subject of the verb
From this reading Yet a single despairing effort I made to beat off or at least postpone the inevitable.
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading I sat up in bed and answered my brother back with, I could feel, ashen and quivering lips.
incapable of being avoided or prevented
From this reading Yet a single despairing effort I made to beat off or at least postpone the inevitable.
the superlative of “little” that can be used with mass nouns and is usually preceded by “the”; a quantifier meaning smallest in amount or extent or degree
From this reading Yet a single despairing effort I made to beat off or at least postpone the inevitable.
plural of “lip” — either of two fleshy folds of tissue that surround the mouth and play a role in speaking
From this reading I sat up in bed and answered my brother back with, I could feel, ashen and quivering lips.
produced by a manufacturing process
From this reading Yet a single despairing effort I made to beat off or at least postpone the inevitable.
mean or intend to express or convey
From this reading “What do you mean?”
belonging to the person speaking
From this reading I sat up in bed and answered my brother back with, I could feel, ashen and quivering lips.
used to make a word, phrase, or sentence negative
From this reading CONVICT, BUT NOT SENTENCED.
from a particular thing or place or position (“forth” is obsolete)
From this reading Yet a single despairing effort I made to beat off or at least postpone the inevitable.
used to join alternatives or possibilities
From this reading Yet a single despairing effort I made to beat off or at least postpone the inevitable.
hold back to a later time
From this reading Yet a single despairing effort I made to beat off or at least postpone the inevitable.
a shaky motion
From this reading I sat up in bed and answered my brother back with, I could feel, ashen and quivering lips.
the seventh and last day of the week; observed as the Sabbath by Jews and some Christians
From this reading I sat up in bed and answered my brother back with, I could feel, ashen and quivering lips.
past form of “sentence” — pronounce a sentence on (somebody) in a court of law
From this reading CONVICT, BUT NOT SENTENCED.
being or characteristic of a single thing or person
From this reading Yet a single despairing effort I made to beat off or at least postpone the inevitable.
for that reason; with the result that
From this reading So the blow had fallen!
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading So the blow had fallen!
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading Yet a single despairing effort I made to beat off or at least postpone the inevitable.
being or moving higher in position or greater in some value; being above a former position or level
From this reading I sat up in bed and answered my brother back with, I could feel, ashen and quivering lips.
used to ask for information about something
From this reading “What do you mean?”
in the company of; together with
From this reading I sat up in bed and answered my brother back with, I could feel, ashen and quivering lips.
but in spite of that
From this reading Yet a single despairing effort I made to beat off or at least postpone the inevitable.
the person or people being spoken to
From this reading “What do you mean?”
Chapter 8 of The mill of silence by Bernard Capes holds 158 sentences, grouped into 32 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 8 holds 158 sentences of The mill of silence, unabridged, divided into 32 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 8 of The mill of silence by Bernard Capes exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 158 sentences, grouped into 32 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 32 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 32 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 8 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 mill of silence by Bernard Capes on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 0 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #? are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #?, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 5 minutes of reading across 0 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The mill of silence section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 0 chapters of The mill of silence 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 mill of silence, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
