Chapter 5 of The Red Symbol is here in full — 93 sentences across 19 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter V
Chapter 5 of The Red Symbol is here in full — 93 sentences across 19 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A RED-HAIRED WOMAN! I bent over the corpse and touched the forehead tentatively with my finger-tips. It was stone cold. The man must have been dead many hours. "Come on; we must send for the police; pull yourself together, man!"
Chapter 5 of The Red Symbol is here in full — 93 sentences across 19 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/18 · 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 relatively permanent inclination to react in a particular way
From this reading “I bent over the corpse and touched the forehead tentatively with my finger-tips.”
the dead body of a human being
From this reading “I bent over the corpse and touched the forehead tentatively with my finger-tips.”
the part of the face above the eyes
From this reading “I bent over the corpse and touched the forehead tentatively with my finger-tips.”
the force of policemen and officers
From this reading “"Come on; we must send for the police; pull yourself together, man!"”
cause to move by pulling
From this reading “"Come on; we must send for the police; pull yourself together, man!"”
a lump or mass of hard consolidated mineral matter
From this reading “It was stone cold.”
in a tentative manner
From this reading “I bent over the corpse and touched the forehead tentatively with my finger-tips.”
having come into contact
From this reading “I bent over the corpse and touched the forehead tentatively with my finger-tips.”
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 “The man must have been dead many hours.”
In this reading “I bent over the corpse and touched the forehead tentatively with my finger-tips.”
order, request, or command to come
In this reading “"Come on; we must send for the police; pull yourself together, man!"”
appear or become visible; make a showing
In this reading “"Come on; we must send for the police; pull yourself together, man!"”
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 A RED-HAIRED WOMAN!
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading I bent over the corpse and touched the forehead tentatively with my finger-tips.
the past participle of “be”
From this reading The man must have been dead many hours.
a relatively permanent inclination to react in a particular way
From this reading I bent over the corpse and touched the forehead tentatively with my finger-tips.
having a low or inadequate temperature or feeling a sensation of coldness or having been made cold by e.g. ice or refrigeration
From this reading It was stone cold.
move toward, travel toward something or somebody or approach something or somebody
From this reading "Come on; we must send for the police; pull yourself together, man!"
the dead body of a human being
From this reading I bent over the corpse and touched the forehead tentatively with my finger-tips.
no longer having or seeming to have or expecting to have life
From this reading The man must have been dead many hours.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading I bent over the corpse and touched the forehead tentatively with my finger-tips.
intended to be given to, or used by, somebody
From this reading "Come on; we must send for the police; pull yourself together, man!"
the part of the face above the eyes
From this reading I bent over the corpse and touched the forehead tentatively with my finger-tips.
used with a past participle to form the perfect tenses
From this reading The man must have been dead many hours.
a period of time assigned for work
From this reading The man must have been dead many hours.
the person speaking or writing, as the subject of the verb
From this reading I bent over the corpse and touched the forehead tentatively with my finger-tips.
a thing, animal, or idea already mentioned
From this reading It was stone cold.
an adult person who is male (as opposed to a woman)
From this reading The man must have been dead many hours.
a quantifier that can be used with count nouns and is often preceded by “as” or “too” or “so” or “that”; amounting to a large but indefinite number
From this reading The man must have been dead many hours.
used to say something is necessary, or almost certainly true
From this reading The man must have been dead many hours.
belonging to the person speaking
From this reading I bent over the corpse and touched the forehead tentatively with my finger-tips.
touching and supported by a surface
From this reading "Come on; we must send for the police; pull yourself together, man!"
above and across; more than
From this reading I bent over the corpse and touched the forehead tentatively with my finger-tips.
the force of policemen and officers
From this reading "Come on; we must send for the police; pull yourself together, man!"
cause to move by pulling
From this reading "Come on; we must send for the police; pull yourself together, man!"
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading A RED-HAIRED WOMAN!
cause to go somewhere
From this reading "Come on; we must send for the police; pull yourself together, man!"
a lump or mass of hard consolidated mineral matter
From this reading It was stone cold.
in a tentative manner
From this reading I bent over the corpse and touched the forehead tentatively with my finger-tips.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading I bent over the corpse and touched the forehead tentatively with my finger-tips.
in contact with each other or in proximity
From this reading "Come on; we must send for the police; pull yourself together, man!"
having come into contact
From this reading I bent over the corpse and touched the forehead tentatively with my finger-tips.
the past form of “be” used with I, he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading It was stone cold.
the speaker together with one or more other people
From this reading "Come on; we must send for the police; pull yourself together, man!"
in the company of; together with
From this reading I bent over the corpse and touched the forehead tentatively with my finger-tips.
an adult female person (as opposed to a man)
From this reading A RED-HAIRED WOMAN!
used when the person spoken to is also the object of the action
From this reading "Come on; we must send for the police; pull yourself together, man!"
Chapter 5 of The Red Symbol by John Ironside holds 93 sentences, grouped into 19 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 5 holds 93 sentences of The Red Symbol, unabridged, divided into 19 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 5 of The Red Symbol by John Ironside exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 93 sentences, grouped into 19 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 19 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 19 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 5 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 Red Symbol by John Ironside on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 5338 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #31860 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #31860, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 444 minutes of reading across 1068 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Red Symbol section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 39 chapters of The Red Symbol 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 Red Symbol, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
