Chapter 20 of The Wailing Octopus is here in full — 181 sentences across 37 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter XX
Chapter 20 of The Wailing Octopus is here in full — 181 sentences across 37 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
The Buried Secret At first, the captured frogmen were defiant. They insisted that the Navy had nothing on them. The brass ball wasn't theirs. They were only sport divers having some fun. Then, faced with the unassailable fact that Rick had taken motion pictures of their activities, they lapsed into sullen silence and refused to talk.
Chapter 20 of The Wailing Octopus is here in full — 181 sentences across 37 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/36 · 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 “activity” — any specific behavior
From this reading “Then, faced with the unassailable fact that Rick had taken motion pictures of their activities, they lapsed into sullen silence and refused to talk.”
boldly resisting authority or an opposing force
From this reading “The Buried Secret At first, the captured frogmen were defiant.”
many and different
From this reading “They were only sport divers having some fun.”
plural of “frogman” — someone who works underwater
From this reading “The Buried Secret At first, the captured frogmen were defiant.”
no longer active or practicing
From this reading “Then, faced with the unassailable fact that Rick had taken motion pictures of their activities, they lapsed into sullen silence and refused to talk.”
an organization of military vessels belonging to a country and available for sea warfare
From this reading “They insisted that the Navy had nothing on them.”
a painful muscle spasm especially in the neck or back (“rick” and “wrick” are British)
From this reading “Then, faced with the unassailable fact that Rick had taken motion pictures of their activities, they lapsed into sullen silence and refused to talk.”
immune to attack; incapable of being tampered with
From this reading “Then, faced with the unassailable fact that Rick had taken motion pictures of their activities, they lapsed into sullen silence and refused to talk.”
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 “Then, faced with the unassailable fact that Rick had taken motion pictures of their activities, they lapsed into sullen silence and refused to talk.”
a form of entertainment that enacts a story by sound and a sequence of images giving the illusion of continuous movement
In this reading “Then, faced with the unassailable fact that Rick had taken motion pictures of their activities, they lapsed into sullen silence and refused to talk.”
In this reading “They were only sport divers having some fun.”
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.
plural of “activity” — any specific behavior
From this reading Then, faced with the unassailable fact that Rick had taken motion pictures of their activities, they lapsed into sullen silence and refused to talk.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading Then, faced with the unassailable fact that Rick had taken motion pictures of their activities, they lapsed into sullen silence and refused to talk.
in or near a particular place or position
From this reading The Buried Secret At first, the captured frogmen were defiant.
round object that is hit or thrown or kicked in games
From this reading The brass ball wasn't theirs.
an alloy of copper and zinc
From this reading The brass ball wasn't theirs.
placed in a grave
From this reading The Buried Secret At first, the captured frogmen were defiant.
past form of “capture” — succeed in representing or expressing something intangible
From this reading The Buried Secret At first, the captured frogmen were defiant.
boldly resisting authority or an opposing force
From this reading The Buried Secret At first, the captured frogmen were defiant.
many and different
From this reading They were only sport divers having some fun.
having a face or facing especially of a specified kind or number; often used in combination
From this reading Then, faced with the unassailable fact that Rick had taken motion pictures of their activities, they lapsed into sullen silence and refused to talk.
a piece of information about circumstances that exist or events that have occurred
From this reading Then, faced with the unassailable fact that Rick had taken motion pictures of their activities, they lapsed into sullen silence and refused to talk.
preceding all others in time or space or degree
From this reading The Buried Secret At first, the captured frogmen were defiant.
plural of “frogman” — someone who works underwater
From this reading The Buried Secret At first, the captured frogmen were defiant.
activities that are enjoyable or amusing
From this reading They were only sport divers having some fun.
the past form of “have”, used to form the past perfect
From this reading They insisted that the Navy had nothing on them.
the -ing form of “have”
From this reading They were only sport divers having some fun.
past form of “insist” — be emphatic or resolute and refuse to budge
From this reading They insisted that the Navy had nothing on them.
moving to the inside of something
From this reading Then, faced with the unassailable fact that Rick had taken motion pictures of their activities, they lapsed into sullen silence and refused to talk.
no longer active or practicing
From this reading Then, faced with the unassailable fact that Rick had taken motion pictures of their activities, they lapsed into sullen silence and refused to talk.
the use of movements (especially of the hands) to communicate familiar or prearranged signals
From this reading Then, faced with the unassailable fact that Rick had taken motion pictures of their activities, they lapsed into sullen silence and refused to talk.
an organization of military vessels belonging to a country and available for sea warfare
From this reading They insisted that the Navy had nothing on them.
not one thing; not anything
From this reading They insisted that the Navy had nothing on them.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading Then, faced with the unassailable fact that Rick had taken motion pictures of their activities, they lapsed into sullen silence and refused to talk.
touching and supported by a surface
From this reading They insisted that the Navy had nothing on them.
and nothing more
From this reading They were only sport divers having some fun.
plural of “picture” — a visual representation (of an object or scene or person or abstraction) produced on a surface
From this reading Then, faced with the unassailable fact that Rick had taken motion pictures of their activities, they lapsed into sullen silence and refused to talk.
past form of “refuse” — show unwillingness towards
From this reading Then, faced with the unassailable fact that Rick had taken motion pictures of their activities, they lapsed into sullen silence and refused to talk.
a painful muscle spasm especially in the neck or back (“rick” and “wrick” are British)
From this reading Then, faced with the unassailable fact that Rick had taken motion pictures of their activities, they lapsed into sullen silence and refused to talk.
Something that is kept or meant to be kept unknown or unseen by others.
From this reading The Buried Secret At first, the captured frogmen were defiant.
Complete absence of sound; a state of quietness and stillness.
From this reading Then, faced with the unassailable fact that Rick had taken motion pictures of their activities, they lapsed into sullen silence and refused to talk.
(quantifier) used with either mass nouns or plural count nouns to indicate an unspecified number or quantity
From this reading They were only sport divers having some fun.
an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition
From this reading They were only sport divers having some fun.
showing a brooding ill humor
From this reading Then, faced with the unassailable fact that Rick had taken motion pictures of their activities, they lapsed into sullen silence and refused to talk.
understood in a certain way; made sense of
From this reading Then, faced with the unassailable fact that Rick had taken motion pictures of their activities, they lapsed into sullen silence and refused to talk.
exchange thoughts; talk with
From this reading Then, faced with the unassailable fact that Rick had taken motion pictures of their activities, they lapsed into sullen silence and refused to talk.
used to introduce what somebody said, thought, or felt
From this reading They insisted that the Navy had nothing on them.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading The Buried Secret At first, the captured frogmen were defiant.
belonging to the people or things already mentioned
From this reading Then, faced with the unassailable fact that Rick had taken motion pictures of their activities, they lapsed into sullen silence and refused to talk.
the one or ones belonging to them
From this reading The brass ball wasn't theirs.
the people or things already mentioned, as the object
From this reading They insisted that the Navy had nothing on them.
subsequently or soon afterward (often used as sentence connectors)
From this reading Then, faced with the unassailable fact that Rick had taken motion pictures of their activities, they lapsed into sullen silence and refused to talk.
the people, animals, or things already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading They insisted that the Navy had nothing on them.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading Then, faced with the unassailable fact that Rick had taken motion pictures of their activities, they lapsed into sullen silence and refused to talk.
immune to attack; incapable of being tampered with
From this reading Then, faced with the unassailable fact that Rick had taken motion pictures of their activities, they lapsed into sullen silence and refused to talk.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading The brass ball wasn't theirs.
the past form of “be” used with you, we, they, or a plural noun
From this reading The Buried Secret At first, the captured frogmen were defiant.
in the company of; together with
From this reading Then, faced with the unassailable fact that Rick had taken motion pictures of their activities, they lapsed into sullen silence and refused to talk.
Chapter 20 of The Wailing Octopus by Harold L. (Harold Leland) Goodwin holds 181 sentences, grouped into 37 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 20 holds 181 sentences of The Wailing Octopus, unabridged, divided into 37 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 20 of The Wailing Octopus by Harold L. (Harold Leland) Goodwin exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 181 sentences, grouped into 37 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 37 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 37 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 20 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 Wailing Octopus by Harold L. (Harold Leland) Goodwin on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 4131 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #31495 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #31495, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 344 minutes of reading across 827 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Wailing Octopus section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 20 chapters of The Wailing Octopus 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 Wailing Octopus, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
