Chapter 16 of The Portal of Dreams is here in full — 169 sentences across 34 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter XVI
Chapter 16 of The Portal of Dreams is here in full — 169 sentences across 34 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
TWO DISCOVERIES Bob Maxwell was standing before the fire. He turned abstractedly and set his untouched glass on the mantel shelf. "You've got a grouch, Bobby," lectured the young actress, "at a time when you ought to be all puffed up and chesty. Aren't you glad we made good in the same piece? It would be nice of you to say so."
Chapter 16 of The Portal of Dreams is here in full — 169 sentences across 34 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/33 · 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.
a female actor
From this reading “"You've got a grouch, Bobby," lectured the young actress, "at a time when you ought to be all puffed up and chesty.”
plural of “discovery” — the act of discovering something
From this reading “TWO DISCOVERIES Bob Maxwell was standing before the fire.”
a bad-tempered person
From this reading “"You've got a grouch, Bobby," lectured the young actress, "at a time when you ought to be all puffed up and chesty.”
past form of “lecture” — deliver a lecture or talk
From this reading “"You've got a grouch, Bobby," lectured the young actress, "at a time when you ought to be all puffed up and chesty.”
shelf that projects from wall above fireplace
From this reading “He turned abstractedly and set his untouched glass on the mantel shelf.”
a cgs unit of magnetic flux equal to the flux perpendicular to an area of 1 square centimeter in a magnetic field of 1 gauss
From this reading “TWO DISCOVERIES Bob Maxwell was standing before the fire.”
gathered for protruding fullness
From this reading “"You've got a grouch, Bobby," lectured the young actress, "at a time when you ought to be all puffed up and chesty.”
still full
From this reading “He turned abstractedly and set his untouched glass on the mantel shelf.”
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 “He turned abstractedly and set his untouched glass on the mantel shelf.”
In this reading “"You've got a grouch, Bobby," lectured the young actress, "at a time when you ought to be all puffed up and chesty.”
simultaneously
In this reading “"You've got a grouch, Bobby," lectured the young actress, "at a time when you ought to be all puffed up and chesty.”
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 "You've got a grouch, Bobby," lectured the young actress, "at a time when you ought to be all puffed up and chesty.
in an absentminded or preoccupied manner
From this reading He turned abstractedly and set his untouched glass on the mantel shelf.
a female actor
From this reading "You've got a grouch, Bobby," lectured the young actress, "at a time when you ought to be all puffed up and chesty.
(quantifier) used with either mass or count nouns to indicate the whole number or amount of or every one of a class
From this reading "You've got a grouch, Bobby," lectured the young actress, "at a time when you ought to be all puffed up and chesty.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading He turned abstractedly and set his untouched glass on the mantel shelf.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Aren't you glad we made good in the same piece?
in or near a particular place or position
From this reading "You've got a grouch, Bobby," lectured the young actress, "at a time when you ought to be all puffed up and chesty.
used with a past participle to form the passive, or with -ing for continuous tenses
From this reading "You've got a grouch, Bobby," lectured the young actress, "at a time when you ought to be all puffed up and chesty.
earlier than; in front of
From this reading TWO DISCOVERIES Bob Maxwell was standing before the fire.
move up and down repeatedly
From this reading TWO DISCOVERIES Bob Maxwell was standing before the fire.
an informal term for a British policeman
From this reading "You've got a grouch, Bobby," lectured the young actress, "at a time when you ought to be all puffed up and chesty.
marked by a large or well-developed chest
From this reading "You've got a grouch, Bobby," lectured the young actress, "at a time when you ought to be all puffed up and chesty.
plural of “discovery” — the act of discovering something
From this reading TWO DISCOVERIES Bob Maxwell was standing before the fire.
start firing a weapon
From this reading TWO DISCOVERIES Bob Maxwell was standing before the fire.
showing or causing joy and pleasure; especially made happy
From this reading Aren't you glad we made good in the same piece?
a brittle transparent solid with irregular atomic structure
From this reading He turned abstractedly and set his untouched glass on the mantel shelf.
having desirable or positive qualities especially those suitable for a thing specified
From this reading Aren't you glad we made good in the same piece?
inflected form of “get” — come into the possession of something concrete or abstract
From this reading "You've got a grouch, Bobby," lectured the young actress, "at a time when you ought to be all puffed up and chesty.
a bad-tempered person
From this reading "You've got a grouch, Bobby," lectured the young actress, "at a time when you ought to be all puffed up and chesty.
a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading He turned abstractedly and set his untouched glass on the mantel shelf.
belonging to a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned
From this reading He turned abstractedly and set his untouched glass on the mantel shelf.
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading Aren't you glad we made good in the same piece?
a thing, animal, or idea already mentioned
From this reading It would be nice of you to say so."
past form of “lecture” — deliver a lecture or talk
From this reading "You've got a grouch, Bobby," lectured the young actress, "at a time when you ought to be all puffed up and chesty.
produced by a manufacturing process
From this reading Aren't you glad we made good in the same piece?
shelf that projects from wall above fireplace
From this reading He turned abstractedly and set his untouched glass on the mantel shelf.
a cgs unit of magnetic flux equal to the flux perpendicular to an area of 1 square centimeter in a magnetic field of 1 gauss
From this reading TWO DISCOVERIES Bob Maxwell was standing before the fire.
pleasant or pleasing or agreeable in nature or appearance
From this reading It would be nice of you to say so."
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading It would be nice of you to say so."
touching and supported by a surface
From this reading He turned abstractedly and set his untouched glass on the mantel shelf.
used with “to” to say what is right or advisable
From this reading "You've got a grouch, Bobby," lectured the young actress, "at a time when you ought to be all puffed up and chesty.
a separate part of a whole
From this reading Aren't you glad we made good in the same piece?
gathered for protruding fullness
From this reading "You've got a grouch, Bobby," lectured the young actress, "at a time when you ought to be all puffed up and chesty.
Identical; not different.
From this reading Aren't you glad we made good in the same piece?
express in words
From this reading It would be nice of you to say so."
put into a certain place or abstract location
From this reading He turned abstractedly and set his untouched glass on the mantel shelf.
A flat horizontal plane used to hold books or scrolls in a library.
From this reading He turned abstractedly and set his untouched glass on the mantel shelf.
for that reason; with the result that
From this reading It would be nice of you to say so."
having a supporting base
From this reading TWO DISCOVERIES Bob Maxwell was standing before the fire.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading TWO DISCOVERIES Bob Maxwell was standing before the fire.
an instance or single occasion for some event
From this reading "You've got a grouch, Bobby," lectured the young actress, "at a time when you ought to be all puffed up and chesty.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading "You've got a grouch, Bobby," lectured the young actress, "at a time when you ought to be all puffed up and chesty.
moved around an axis or center
From this reading He turned abstractedly and set his untouched glass on the mantel shelf.
the cardinal number that is the sum of one and one or a numeral representing this number
From this reading TWO DISCOVERIES Bob Maxwell was standing before the fire.
still full
From this reading He turned abstractedly and set his untouched glass on the mantel shelf.
being or moving higher in position or greater in some value; being above a former position or level
From this reading "You've got a grouch, Bobby," lectured the young actress, "at a time when you ought to be all puffed up and chesty.
the past form of “be” used with I, he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading TWO DISCOVERIES Bob Maxwell was standing before the fire.
the speaker together with one or more other people
From this reading Aren't you glad we made good in the same piece?
at the time that
From this reading "You've got a grouch, Bobby," lectured the young actress, "at a time when you ought to be all puffed up and chesty.
used for something imagined, polite, or habitual in the past
From this reading It would be nice of you to say so."
the person or people being spoken to
From this reading "You've got a grouch, Bobby," lectured the young actress, "at a time when you ought to be all puffed up and chesty.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading "You've got a grouch, Bobby," lectured the young actress, "at a time when you ought to be all puffed up and chesty.
(used of living things especially persons) in an early period of life or development or growth
From this reading "You've got a grouch, Bobby," lectured the young actress, "at a time when you ought to be all puffed up and chesty.
Chapter 16 of The Portal of Dreams by Charles Neville Buck holds 169 sentences, grouped into 34 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 169 sentences of The Portal of Dreams, unabridged, divided into 34 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 16 of The Portal of Dreams by Charles Neville Buck exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 169 sentences, grouped into 34 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 34 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 34 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 Portal of Dreams by Charles Neville Buck on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 3656 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #31927 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #31927, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 304 minutes of reading across 732 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Portal of Dreams section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 27 chapters of The Portal of Dreams 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 Portal of Dreams, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
