Chapter 1 of The Six Fingers of Time is here in full — 707 sentences across 142 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter I
Chapter 1 of The Six Fingers of Time is here in full — 707 sentences across 142 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
_Time is money. Time heals all wounds. Given time, anything is possible. And now he had all the time in the world!_ He began by breaking things that morning. He broke the glass of water on his night stand.
Chapter 1 of The Six Fingers of Time is here in full — 707 sentences across 142 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/141 · 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 act of breaking something
From this reading “And now he had all the time in the world!_ He began by breaking things that morning.”
lacking funds
From this reading “He broke the glass of water on his night stand.”
acknowledged as a supposition
From this reading “Given time, anything is possible.”
a brittle transparent solid with irregular atomic structure
From this reading “He broke the glass of water on his night stand.”
third-person singular of “heal” — heal or recover
From this reading “Time heals all wounds.”
capable of happening or existing
From this reading “Given time, anything is possible.”
be standing; be upright
From this reading “He broke the glass of water on his night stand.”
plural of “wound” — an injury to living tissue (especially an injury involving a cut or break in the skin)
From this reading “Time heals all wounds.”
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 “And now he had all the time in the world!_ He began by breaking things that morning.”
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.
(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 Time heals all wounds.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading And now he had all the time in the world!_ He began by breaking things that morning.
any thing at all
From this reading Given time, anything is possible.
inflected form of “begin” — take the first step or steps in carrying out an action
From this reading And now he had all the time in the world!_ He began by breaking things that morning.
the act of breaking something
From this reading And now he had all the time in the world!_ He began by breaking things that morning.
lacking funds
From this reading He broke the glass of water on his night stand.
showing who or what does the action
From this reading And now he had all the time in the world!_ He began by breaking things that morning.
acknowledged as a supposition
From this reading Given time, anything is possible.
a brittle transparent solid with irregular atomic structure
From this reading He broke the glass of water on his night stand.
the past form of “have”, used to form the past perfect
From this reading And now he had all the time in the world!_ He began by breaking things that morning.
a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading And now he had all the time in the world!_ He began by breaking things that morning.
third-person singular of “heal” — heal or recover
From this reading Time heals all wounds.
belonging to a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned
From this reading He broke the glass of water on his night stand.
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading And now he had all the time in the world!_ He began by breaking things that morning.
the form of “be” used with he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading _Time is money.
the most common medium of exchange; functions as legal tender
From this reading _Time is money.
the time period between dawn and noon
From this reading And now he had all the time in the world!_ He began by breaking things that morning.
the time after sunset and before sunrise while it is dark outside
From this reading He broke the glass of water on his night stand.
in the historical present; at this point in the narration of a series of past events
From this reading And now he had all the time in the world!_ He began by breaking things that morning.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading He broke the glass of water on his night stand.
touching and supported by a surface
From this reading He broke the glass of water on his night stand.
capable of happening or existing
From this reading Given time, anything is possible.
be standing; be upright
From this reading He broke the glass of water on his night stand.
used to introduce what somebody said, thought, or felt
From this reading And now he had all the time in the world!_ He began by breaking things that morning.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading And now he had all the time in the world!_ He began by breaking things that morning.
any movable possession (especially articles of clothing)
From this reading And now he had all the time in the world!_ He began by breaking things that morning.
an instance or single occasion for some event
From this reading _Time is money.
binary compound that occurs at room temperature as a clear colorless odorless tasteless liquid; freezes into ice below 0 degrees centigrade and boils above 100 degrees centigrade; widely used as a solvent
From this reading He broke the glass of water on his night stand.
everything that exists anywhere
From this reading And now he had all the time in the world!_ He began by breaking things that morning.
plural of “wound” — an injury to living tissue (especially an injury involving a cut or break in the skin)
From this reading Time heals all wounds.
Chapter 1 of The Six Fingers of Time by R. A. Lafferty holds 707 sentences, grouped into 142 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 1 holds 707 sentences of The Six Fingers of Time, unabridged, divided into 142 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 1 of The Six Fingers of Time by R. A. Lafferty exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 707 sentences, grouped into 142 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 142 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 142 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 1 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 Six Fingers of Time by R. A. Lafferty on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 707 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #31663 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #31663, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 58 minutes of reading across 142 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Six Fingers of Time section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 1 chapters of The Six Fingers of Time 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 Six Fingers of Time, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
