Chapter 1 of The success machine is here in full — 527 sentences across 106 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter I
Chapter 1 of The success machine is here in full — 527 sentences across 106 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
_Mechanical brains are all the rage these days, so General Products just had to have one. But the blamed thing almost put them out of business. Why? It had no tact. It insisted upon telling the truth!_ The Personnelovac winked, chittered, chortled, chuckled, and burped a card into the slot.
Chapter 1 of The success machine is here in full — 527 sentences across 106 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/105 · 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.
expletives used informally as intensifiers
From this reading “But the blamed thing almost put them out of business.”
past form of “chortle” — laugh quietly or with restraint
From this reading “It insisted upon telling the truth!_ The Personnelovac winked, chittered, chortled, chuckled, and burped a card into the slot.”
past form of “chuckle” — laugh quietly or with restraint
From this reading “It insisted upon telling the truth!_ The Personnelovac winked, chittered, chortled, chuckled, and burped a card into the slot.”
using (or as if using) mechanisms or tools or devices
plural of “product” — commodities offered for sale
From this reading “_Mechanical brains are all the rage these days, so General Products just had to have one.”
a position in a grammatical linguistic construction in which a variety of alternative units are interchangeable
From this reading “It insisted upon telling the truth!_ The Personnelovac winked, chittered, chortled, chuckled, and burped a card into the slot.”
consideration in dealing with others and avoiding giving offense
From this reading “It had no tact.”
past form of “wink” — signal by winking
From this reading “It insisted upon telling the truth!_ The Personnelovac winked, chittered, chortled, chuckled, and burped a card into the slot.”
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 It insisted upon telling the truth!_ The Personnelovac winked, chittered, chortled, chuckled, and burped a card into the slot.
(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 _Mechanical brains are all the rage these days, so General Products just had to have one.
(of actions or states) slightly short of or not quite accomplished; all but
From this reading But the blamed thing almost put them out of business.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading It insisted upon telling the truth!_ The Personnelovac winked, chittered, chortled, chuckled, and burped a card into the slot.
the form of “be” used with you, we, they, or a plural noun
From this reading _Mechanical brains are all the rage these days, so General Products just had to have one.
expletives used informally as intensifiers
From this reading But the blamed thing almost put them out of business.
plural of “brain” — that part of the central nervous system that includes all the higher nervous centers; enclosed within the skull; continuous with the spinal cord
From this reading _Mechanical brains are all the rage these days, so General Products just had to have one.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading It insisted upon telling the truth!_ The Personnelovac winked, chittered, chortled, chuckled, and burped a card into the slot.
a commercial or industrial enterprise and the people who constitute it
From this reading But the blamed thing almost put them out of business.
used to introduce something that contrasts with what came before
From this reading But the blamed thing almost put them out of business.
one of a set of small pieces of stiff paper marked in various ways and used for playing games or for telling fortunes
From this reading It insisted upon telling the truth!_ The Personnelovac winked, chittered, chortled, chuckled, and burped a card into the slot.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading It insisted upon telling the truth!_ The Personnelovac winked, chittered, chortled, chuckled, and burped a card into the slot.
past form of “chortle” — laugh quietly or with restraint
From this reading It insisted upon telling the truth!_ The Personnelovac winked, chittered, chortled, chuckled, and burped a card into the slot.
past form of “chuckle” — laugh quietly or with restraint
From this reading It insisted upon telling the truth!_ The Personnelovac winked, chittered, chortled, chuckled, and burped a card into the slot.
the time during which someone's life continues
From this reading _Mechanical brains are all the rage these days, so General Products just had to have one.
applying to all or most members of a category or group
From this reading _Mechanical brains are all the rage these days, so General Products just had to have one.
the past form of “have”, used to form the past perfect
From this reading _Mechanical brains are all the rage these days, so General Products just had to have one.
used with a past participle to form the perfect tenses
From this reading _Mechanical brains are all the rage these days, so General Products just had to have one.
past form of “insist” — be emphatic or resolute and refuse to budge
From this reading It insisted upon telling the truth!_ The Personnelovac winked, chittered, chortled, chuckled, and burped a card into the slot.
moving to the inside of something
From this reading It insisted upon telling the truth!_ The Personnelovac winked, chittered, chortled, chuckled, and burped a card into the slot.
a thing, animal, or idea already mentioned
From this reading It had no tact.
and nothing more
From this reading _Mechanical brains are all the rage these days, so General Products just had to have one.
using (or as if using) mechanisms or tools or devices
From this reading _Mechanical brains are all the rage these days, so General Products just had to have one.
not any; not one
From this reading It had no tact.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading But the blamed thing almost put them out of business.
used to mean any person in general, including the speaker
From this reading _Mechanical brains are all the rage these days, so General Products just had to have one.
not allowed to continue to bat or run
From this reading But the blamed thing almost put them out of business.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading It insisted upon telling the truth!_ The Personnelovac winked, chittered, chortled, chuckled, and burped a card into the slot.
plural of “product” — commodities offered for sale
From this reading _Mechanical brains are all the rage these days, so General Products just had to have one.
put into a certain place or abstract location
From this reading But the blamed thing almost put them out of business.
a feeling of intense anger
From this reading _Mechanical brains are all the rage these days, so General Products just had to have one.
a position in a grammatical linguistic construction in which a variety of alternative units are interchangeable
From this reading It insisted upon telling the truth!_ The Personnelovac winked, chittered, chortled, chuckled, and burped a card into the slot.
for that reason; with the result that
From this reading _Mechanical brains are all the rage these days, so General Products just had to have one.
consideration in dealing with others and avoiding giving offense
From this reading It had no tact.
disclosing unintentionally something concealed
From this reading It insisted upon telling the truth!_ The Personnelovac winked, chittered, chortled, chuckled, and burped a card into the slot.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading _Mechanical brains are all the rage these days, so General Products just had to have one.
the people or things already mentioned, as the object
From this reading But the blamed thing almost put them out of business.
the plural of “this”: the people or things near, or just mentioned
From this reading _Mechanical brains are all the rage these days, so General Products just had to have one.
a special situation
From this reading But the blamed thing almost put them out of business.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading _Mechanical brains are all the rage these days, so General Products just had to have one.
a fact that has been verified
From this reading It insisted upon telling the truth!_ The Personnelovac winked, chittered, chortled, chuckled, and burped a card into the slot.
a formal word for “on”
From this reading It insisted upon telling the truth!_ The Personnelovac winked, chittered, chortled, chuckled, and burped a card into the slot.
the cause or intention underlying an action or situation, especially in the phrase “the whys and wherefores”
From this reading Why?
past form of “wink” — signal by winking
From this reading It insisted upon telling the truth!_ The Personnelovac winked, chittered, chortled, chuckled, and burped a card into the slot.
Chapter 1 of The success machine by Henry Slesar holds 527 sentences, grouped into 106 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 527 sentences of The success machine, unabridged, divided into 106 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 1 of The success machine by Henry Slesar exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 527 sentences, grouped into 106 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 106 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 106 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 success machine by Henry Slesar on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 527 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #26168 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #26168, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 43 minutes of reading across 106 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The success machine section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 1 chapters of The success machine 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 success machine, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
