Chapter 25 of The Vale of Cedars is here in full — 155 sentences across 31 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
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Chapter XXV
Chapter 25 of The Vale of Cedars is here in full — 155 sentences across 31 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
"Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed! Buoy the full heart up! It will sink If it but pause to feel and think. There is no time to dread his fate: No thought but one--too late, too late!" MS.
Chapter 25 of The Vale of Cedars is here in full — 155 sentences across 31 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/31 · 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.
float on the surface of water
From this reading “Buoy the full heart up!”
plural of “hang” — a special way of doing something
From this reading “"Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed!”
third-person singular of “hover” — be undecided about something; waver between conflicting positions or courses of action
From this reading “"Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed!”
fall or descend to a lower place or level
From this reading “It will sink If it but pause to feel and think.”
predatory arachnid with eight legs, two poison fangs, two feelers, and usually two silk-spinning organs at the back end of the body; they spin silk to make cocoons for eggs or traps for prey
From this reading “"Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed!”
(literary) a spirited horse for state of war
From this reading “"Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed!”
(of undissolved particles in a fluid) supported or kept from sinking or falling by buoyancy and without apparent attachment
From this reading “"Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed!”
to move or cause to move in a sinuous, spiral, or circular course
From this reading “"Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed!”
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 "Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed!
higher than, or over, something
From this reading "Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed!
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading It will sink If it but pause to feel and think.
float on the surface of water
From this reading Buoy the full heart up!
used to introduce something that contrasts with what came before
From this reading It will sink If it but pause to feel and think.
showing who or what does the action
From this reading "Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed!
fearful expectation or anticipation
From this reading There is no time to dread his fate: No thought but one--too late, too late!"
an event (or a course of events) that will inevitably happen in the future
From this reading There is no time to dread his fate: No thought but one--too late, too late!"
undergo an emotional sensation or be in a particular state of mind
From this reading It will sink If it but pause to feel and think.
containing as much or as many as is possible or normal
From this reading Buoy the full heart up!
unflinching in battle or action
From this reading "Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed!
plural of “hang” — a special way of doing something
From this reading "Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed!
the upper part of the human body or the front part of the body in animals; contains the face and brains
From this reading "Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed!
the locus of feelings and intuitions
From this reading Buoy the full heart up!
belonging to a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned
From this reading "Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed!
third-person singular of “hover” — be undecided about something; waver between conflicting positions or courses of action
From this reading "Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed!
on condition that; in the event that
From this reading It will sink If it but pause to feel and think.
the form of “be” used with he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading There is no time to dread his fate: No thought but one--too late, too late!"
a thing, animal, or idea already mentioned
From this reading It will sink If it but pause to feel and think.
being or occurring at an advanced period of time or after a usual or expected time
From this reading There is no time to dread his fate: No thought but one--too late, too late!"
a characteristic state or mode of living
From this reading "Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed!
abrupt electric discharge from cloud to cloud or from cloud to earth accompanied by the emission of light
From this reading "Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed!
a chronic progressive nervous disorder involving loss of myelin sheath around certain nerve fibers
From this reading MS.
not any; not one
From this reading There is no time to dread his fate: No thought but one--too late, too late!"
touching and supported by a surface
From this reading "Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed!
used to mean any person in general, including the speaker
From this reading There is no time to dread his fate: No thought but one--too late, too late!"
a time interval during which there is a temporary cessation of something
From this reading It will sink If it but pause to feel and think.
fall or descend to a lower place or level
From this reading It will sink If it but pause to feel and think.
move hurridly
From this reading "Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed!
predatory arachnid with eight legs, two poison fangs, two feelers, and usually two silk-spinning organs at the back end of the body; they spin silk to make cocoons for eggs or traps for prey
From this reading "Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed!
(literary) a spirited horse for state of war
From this reading "Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed!
an alloy of iron with small amounts of carbon; widely used in construction; mechanical properties can be varied over a wide range
From this reading "Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed!
(of undissolved particles in a fluid) supported or kept from sinking or falling by buoyancy and without apparent attachment
From this reading "Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed!
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading "Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed!
in or at that place or location
From this reading There is no time to dread his fate: No thought but one--too late, too late!"
judge or regard; look upon; judge
From this reading It will sink If it but pause to feel and think.
the content of cognition; the main thing you are thinking about
From this reading There is no time to dread his fate: No thought but one--too late, too late!"
to move or cause to move in a sinuous, spiral, or circular course
From this reading "Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed!
an old word for “your”, speaking to one person
From this reading "Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed!
an instance or single occasion for some event
From this reading There is no time to dread his fate: No thought but one--too late, too late!"
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading It will sink If it but pause to feel and think.
to a degree exceeding normal or proper limits
From this reading There is no time to dread his fate: No thought but one--too late, too late!"
being or moving higher in position or greater in some value; being above a former position or level
From this reading Buoy the full heart up!
used to talk about the future, or about willingness
From this reading It will sink If it but pause to feel and think.
a movable organ for flying (one of a pair)
From this reading "Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed!
in the company of; together with
From this reading "Hovers the steel above his head, Suspended by a spider thread: On, on! a life hangs on thy speed; With lightning wing the gallant steed!
Chapter 25 of The Vale of Cedars by Grace Aguilar holds 155 sentences, grouped into 31 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 25 holds 155 sentences of The Vale of Cedars, unabridged, divided into 31 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 25 of The Vale of Cedars by Grace Aguilar exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 155 sentences, grouped into 31 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 31 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 31 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 25 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 Vale of Cedars by Grace Aguilar on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 3335 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #12725 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #12725, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 277 minutes of reading across 667 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Vale of Cedars section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 35 chapters of The Vale of Cedars 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 Vale of Cedars, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
