Chapter 2 of The Sundial is here in full — 405 sentences across 81 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter II
Chapter 2 of The Sundial is here in full — 405 sentences across 81 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
The woman stood just for a moment, beginning dimly to comprehend. She placed her hand to her head. A moaning cry escaped her lips. With faltering steps she crossed the room and laid a long, slim hand on the child’s face. For a while she neither spoke nor moved.
Chapter 2 of The Sundial is here in full — 405 sentences across 81 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/81 · 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.
possessive form of “child” — a young person of either sex
get the meaning of something
From this reading “The woman stood just for a moment, beginning dimly to comprehend.”
placed crosswise
From this reading “With faltering steps she crossed the room and laid a long, slim hand on the child’s face.”
in a dim indistinct manner
From this reading “The woman stood just for a moment, beginning dimly to comprehend.”
having escaped, especially from confinement
From this reading “A moaning cry escaped her lips.”
the act of pausing uncertainly
From this reading “With faltering steps she crossed the room and laid a long, slim hand on the child’s face.”
-ing form of “moan” — indicate pain, discomfort, or displeasure
From this reading “A moaning cry escaped her lips.”
being of delicate or slender build
From this reading “With faltering steps she crossed the room and laid a long, slim hand on the child’s face.”
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.
temporarily
In this reading “The woman stood just for a moment, beginning dimly to comprehend.”
In this reading “With faltering steps she crossed the room and laid a long, slim hand on the child’s face.”
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 The woman stood just for a moment, beginning dimly to comprehend.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading With faltering steps she crossed the room and laid a long, slim hand on the child’s face.
the event consisting of the start of something
From this reading The woman stood just for a moment, beginning dimly to comprehend.
possessive form of “child” — a young person of either sex
From this reading With faltering steps she crossed the room and laid a long, slim hand on the child’s face.
get the meaning of something
From this reading The woman stood just for a moment, beginning dimly to comprehend.
placed crosswise
From this reading With faltering steps she crossed the room and laid a long, slim hand on the child’s face.
utter a sudden loud cry
From this reading A moaning cry escaped her lips.
in a dim indistinct manner
From this reading The woman stood just for a moment, beginning dimly to comprehend.
having escaped, especially from confinement
From this reading A moaning cry escaped her lips.
the front of the human head from the forehead to the chin and ear to ear
From this reading With faltering steps she crossed the room and laid a long, slim hand on the child’s face.
the act of pausing uncertainly
From this reading With faltering steps she crossed the room and laid a long, slim hand on the child’s face.
intended to be given to, or used by, somebody
From this reading The woman stood just for a moment, beginning dimly to comprehend.
the (prehensile) extremity of the superior limb
From this reading She placed her hand to her head.
the upper part of the human body or the front part of the body in animals; contains the face and brains
From this reading She placed her hand to her head.
belonging to a woman, girl, or female animal already mentioned
From this reading She placed her hand to her head.
and nothing more
From this reading The woman stood just for a moment, beginning dimly to comprehend.
set down according to a plan
From this reading With faltering steps she crossed the room and laid a long, slim hand on the child’s face.
plural of “lip” — either of two fleshy folds of tissue that surround the mouth and play a role in speaking
From this reading A moaning cry escaped her lips.
primarily temporal sense; being or indicating a relatively great or greater than average duration or passage of time or a duration as specified
From this reading With faltering steps she crossed the room and laid a long, slim hand on the child’s face.
-ing form of “moan” — indicate pain, discomfort, or displeasure
From this reading A moaning cry escaped her lips.
a particular point in time
From this reading The woman stood just for a moment, beginning dimly to comprehend.
being excited or provoked to the expression of an emotion
From this reading For a while she neither spoke nor moved.
not one and not the other of two
From this reading For a while she neither spoke nor moved.
and not; used after a negative to add a second negative
From this reading For a while she neither spoke nor moved.
touching and supported by a surface
From this reading With faltering steps she crossed the room and laid a long, slim hand on the child’s face.
situated in a particular spot or position
From this reading She placed her hand to her head.
an area within a building enclosed by walls and floor and ceiling
From this reading With faltering steps she crossed the room and laid a long, slim hand on the child’s face.
a woman, girl, or female animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading She placed her hand to her head.
being of delicate or slender build
From this reading With faltering steps she crossed the room and laid a long, slim hand on the child’s face.
support consisting of a radial member of a wheel joining the hub to the rim
From this reading For a while she neither spoke nor moved.
a flight of stairs or a flight of steps
From this reading With faltering steps she crossed the room and laid a long, slim hand on the child’s face.
Maintained an upright posture.
From this reading The woman stood just for a moment, beginning dimly to comprehend.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading The woman stood just for a moment, beginning dimly to comprehend.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading The woman stood just for a moment, beginning dimly to comprehend.
during the time that
From this reading For a while she neither spoke nor moved.
in the company of; together with
From this reading With faltering steps she crossed the room and laid a long, slim hand on the child’s face.
an adult female person (as opposed to a man)
From this reading The woman stood just for a moment, beginning dimly to comprehend.
Chapter 2 of The Sundial by Fred M. (Fred Merrick) White holds 405 sentences, grouped into 81 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 2 holds 405 sentences of The Sundial, unabridged, divided into 81 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 2 of The Sundial by Fred M. (Fred Merrick) White exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 405 sentences, grouped into 81 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 81 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 81 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 Sundial by Fred M. (Fred Merrick) White on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 6094 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #55006 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #55006, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 507 minutes of reading across 1219 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Sundial section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 15 chapters of The Sundial 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 Sundial, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
