Chapter 16 of The Pirates of Shan is here in full — 176 sentences across 36 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
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Chapter XVI
Chapter 16 of The Pirates of Shan is here in full — 176 sentences across 36 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
The Black Cliff Heavy seas broke against the rocky base of the island. Rick surveyed the cove they had chosen with some misgiving. The vinta wouldn't be safe if tied to shore. The breaking surf would batter it to bits before they could get back. Scotty moved to his side.
Chapter 16 of The Pirates of Shan is here in full — 176 sentences across 36 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/35 · 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 against forcefully
From this reading “The breaking surf would batter it to bits before they could get back.”
plural of “bit” — a small piece or quantity of something
From this reading “The breaking surf would batter it to bits before they could get back.”
a small inlet
From this reading “Rick surveyed the cove they had chosen with some misgiving.”
uneasiness about the fitness of an action
From this reading “Rick surveyed the cove they had chosen with some misgiving.”
a painful muscle spasm especially in the neck or back (“rick” and “wrick” are British)
From this reading “Rick surveyed the cove they had chosen with some misgiving.”
abounding in rocks or stones
From this reading “The Black Cliff Heavy seas broke against the rocky base of the island.”
waves breaking on the shore
From this reading “The breaking surf would batter it to bits before they could get back.”
past form of “survey” — consider in a comprehensive way
From this reading “Rick surveyed the cove they had chosen with some misgiving.”
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 “Rick surveyed the cove they had chosen with some misgiving.”
In this reading “The Black Cliff Heavy seas broke against the rocky base of the island.”
recover something or somebody that appeared to be lost
In this reading “The breaking surf would batter it to bits before they could get back.”
In this reading “The Black Cliff Heavy seas broke against the rocky base of the island.”
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.
touching and pressing; in opposition to
From this reading The Black Cliff Heavy seas broke against the rocky base of the island.
in or to or toward a former location
From this reading The breaking surf would batter it to bits before they could get back.
installation from which a military force initiates operations
From this reading The Black Cliff Heavy seas broke against the rocky base of the island.
strike against forcefully
From this reading The breaking surf would batter it to bits before they could get back.
used with a past participle to form the passive, or with -ing for continuous tenses
From this reading The vinta wouldn't be safe if tied to shore.
earlier than; in front of
From this reading The breaking surf would batter it to bits before they could get back.
plural of “bit” — a small piece or quantity of something
From this reading The breaking surf would batter it to bits before they could get back.
being of the achromatic color of maximum darkness; having little or no hue owing to absorption of almost all incident light
From this reading The Black Cliff Heavy seas broke against the rocky base of the island.
the act of breaking something
From this reading The breaking surf would batter it to bits before they could get back.
lacking funds
From this reading The Black Cliff Heavy seas broke against the rocky base of the island.
one who is the object of choice; who is given preference
From this reading Rick surveyed the cove they had chosen with some misgiving.
a steep high face of rock
From this reading The Black Cliff Heavy seas broke against the rocky base of the island.
the past of “can”; used for possibility or polite requests
From this reading The breaking surf would batter it to bits before they could get back.
a small inlet
From this reading Rick surveyed the cove they had chosen with some misgiving.
come into the possession of something concrete or abstract
From this reading The breaking surf would batter it to bits before they could get back.
the past form of “have”, used to form the past perfect
From this reading Rick surveyed the cove they had chosen with some misgiving.
of comparatively great physical weight or density
From this reading The Black Cliff Heavy seas broke against the rocky base of the island.
belonging to a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned
From this reading Scotty moved to his side.
on condition that; in the event that
From this reading The vinta wouldn't be safe if tied to shore.
a land mass (smaller than a continent) that is surrounded by water
From this reading The Black Cliff Heavy seas broke against the rocky base of the island.
a thing, animal, or idea already mentioned
From this reading The breaking surf would batter it to bits before they could get back.
uneasiness about the fitness of an action
From this reading Rick surveyed the cove they had chosen with some misgiving.
being excited or provoked to the expression of an emotion
From this reading Scotty moved to his side.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading The Black Cliff Heavy seas broke against the rocky base of the island.
a painful muscle spasm especially in the neck or back (“rick” and “wrick” are British)
From this reading Rick surveyed the cove they had chosen with some misgiving.
abounding in rocks or stones
From this reading The Black Cliff Heavy seas broke against the rocky base of the island.
free from danger or the risk of harm
From this reading The vinta wouldn't be safe if tied to shore.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Scotty moved to his side.
plural of “sea” — a division of an ocean or a large body of salt water partially enclosed by land
From this reading The Black Cliff Heavy seas broke against the rocky base of the island.
the land along the edge of a body of water
From this reading The vinta wouldn't be safe if tied to shore.
a place within a region identified relative to a center or reference location
From this reading Scotty moved to his side.
(quantifier) used with either mass nouns or plural count nouns to indicate an unspecified number or quantity
From this reading Rick surveyed the cove they had chosen with some misgiving.
waves breaking on the shore
From this reading The breaking surf would batter it to bits before they could get back.
past form of “survey” — consider in a comprehensive way
From this reading Rick surveyed the cove they had chosen with some misgiving.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading The Black Cliff Heavy seas broke against the rocky base of the island.
the people, animals, or things already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading Rick surveyed the cove they had chosen with some misgiving.
bound or secured closely
From this reading The vinta wouldn't be safe if tied to shore.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading The vinta wouldn't be safe if tied to shore.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading The vinta wouldn't be safe if tied to shore.
in the company of; together with
From this reading Rick surveyed the cove they had chosen with some misgiving.
used for something imagined, polite, or habitual in the past
From this reading The breaking surf would batter it to bits before they could get back.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading The vinta wouldn't be safe if tied to shore.
Chapter 16 of The Pirates of Shan by Harold L. (Harold Leland) Goodwin holds 176 sentences, grouped into 36 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 16 holds 176 sentences of The Pirates of Shan, unabridged, divided into 36 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 16 of The Pirates of Shan by Harold L. (Harold Leland) Goodwin exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 176 sentences, grouped into 36 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 36 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 36 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 16 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 Pirates of Shan by Harold L. (Harold Leland) Goodwin on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 3758 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #32059 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #32059, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 313 minutes of reading across 752 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Pirates of Shan section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 20 chapters of The Pirates of Shan 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 Pirates of Shan, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
