Chapter 2 of The Sleeping-Car: A Farce is here in full — 281 sentences across 57 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter II
Chapter 2 of The Sleeping-Car: A Farce is here in full — 281 sentences across 57 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A VOICE. Train robbers! Throw up your hands! Tell the express-messenger to bring his safe. [The passengers emerge from their berths in various deshabille and bewilderment.]
Chapter 2 of The Sleeping-Car: A Farce is here in full — 281 sentences across 57 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/56 · 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.
plural of “berth” — a job in an organization
From this reading “[The passengers emerge from their berths in various deshabille and bewilderment.]”
confusion resulting from failure to understand
From this reading “[The passengers emerge from their berths in various deshabille and bewilderment.]”
come out into view, as from concealment
From this reading “[The passengers emerge from their berths in various deshabille and bewilderment.]”
plural of “passenger” — a traveler riding in a vehicle (a boat or bus or car or plane or train etc) who is not operating it
From this reading “[The passengers emerge from their berths in various deshabille and bewilderment.]”
Persons who steal from a person or place, especially using violence or threats.
From this reading “Train robbers!”
propel through the air
From this reading “Throw up your hands!”
create by training and teaching
From this reading “Train robbers!”
of many different kinds purposefully arranged but lacking any uniformity
From this reading “[The passengers emerge from their berths in various deshabille and bewilderment.]”
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 VOICE.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading [The passengers emerge from their berths in various deshabille and bewilderment.]
plural of “berth” — a job in an organization
From this reading [The passengers emerge from their berths in various deshabille and bewilderment.]
confusion resulting from failure to understand
From this reading [The passengers emerge from their berths in various deshabille and bewilderment.]
take something or somebody with oneself somewhere
From this reading Tell the express-messenger to bring his safe.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading [The passengers emerge from their berths in various deshabille and bewilderment.]
come out into view, as from concealment
From this reading [The passengers emerge from their berths in various deshabille and bewilderment.]
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Tell the express-messenger to bring his safe.
showing where something starts, or who sent it
From this reading [The passengers emerge from their berths in various deshabille and bewilderment.]
(with “in”) guardianship over; in divorce cases it is the right to house and care for and discipline a child
From this reading Throw up your hands!
belonging to a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned
From this reading Tell the express-messenger to bring his safe.
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading [The passengers emerge from their berths in various deshabille and bewilderment.]
plural of “passenger” — a traveler riding in a vehicle (a boat or bus or car or plane or train etc) who is not operating it
From this reading [The passengers emerge from their berths in various deshabille and bewilderment.]
Persons who steal from a person or place, especially using violence or threats.
From this reading Train robbers!
free from danger or the risk of harm
From this reading Tell the express-messenger to bring his safe.
express in words
From this reading Tell the express-messenger to bring his safe.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading Tell the express-messenger to bring his safe.
belonging to the people or things already mentioned
From this reading [The passengers emerge from their berths in various deshabille and bewilderment.]
propel through the air
From this reading Throw up your hands!
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading Tell the express-messenger to bring his safe.
create by training and teaching
From this reading Train robbers!
being or moving higher in position or greater in some value; being above a former position or level
From this reading Throw up your hands!
of many different kinds purposefully arranged but lacking any uniformity
From this reading [The passengers emerge from their berths in various deshabille and bewilderment.]
the distinctive quality or pitch or condition of a person's speech
From this reading A VOICE.
belonging to the person or people being spoken to
From this reading Throw up your hands!
Chapter 2 of The Sleeping-Car: A Farce by William Dean Howells holds 281 sentences, grouped into 57 reading sections of at most 5 sentences. The text is the public-domain source, 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 2 holds 281 sentences of The Sleeping-Car: A Farce, unabridged, divided into 57 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 2 of The Sleeping-Car: A Farce by William Dean Howells exactly as it stands in the public-domain source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 281 sentences, grouped into 57 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 57 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 57 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 2 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 Sleeping-Car: A Farce by William Dean Howells on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 557 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #2506 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #2506, a public-domain edition. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 46 minutes of reading across 112 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Sleeping-Car: A Farce section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 2 chapters of The Sleeping-Car: A Farce 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 Sleeping-Car: A Farce, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
