Chapter 1 of The White Christmas and other Merry is here in full — 353 sentences across 71 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter I
Chapter 1 of The White Christmas and other Merry is here in full — 353 sentences across 71 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
(_Starts off right._) ISAAC. Nay, Simeon, wait! What means this crowd of men And women here in peaceful Bethlehem? SIMEON (_comes to him_). Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.
Chapter 1 of The White Christmas and other Merry is here in full — 353 sentences across 71 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 18/70 · 5 reading units · Lines 86–90
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.
a town in eastern Pennsylvania on the Lehigh River to the northwest of Philadelphia; an important center for steel production
From this reading “What means this crowd of men And women here in peaceful Bethlehem?”
issue a decree
From this reading “Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.”
king of Judea who (according to the New Testament) tried to kill Jesus by ordering the death of all children under age two in Bethlehem (73-4 BC)
From this reading “Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.”
(Old Testament) the second patriarch; son of Abraham and Sarah who was offered by Abraham as a sacrifice to God; father of Jacob and Esau
From this reading “(_Starts off right._) ISAAC.”
record in writing; enter into a book of names or events or transactions
From this reading “Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.”
(Old Testament) the 2nd son of Jacob and one of the 12 patriarchs of Israel
From this reading “Nay, Simeon, wait!”
plural of “start” — the beginning of anything
past form of “tax” — levy a tax on
From this reading “Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.”
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 Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.
(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 Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading What means this crowd of men And women here in peaceful Bethlehem?
used with a past participle to form the passive, or with -ing for continuous tenses
From this reading Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.
a town in eastern Pennsylvania on the Lehigh River to the northwest of Philadelphia; an important center for steel production
From this reading What means this crowd of men And women here in peaceful Bethlehem?
plural of “come” — the thick white fluid containing spermatozoa that is ejaculated by the male genital tract
From this reading SIMEON (_comes to him_).
cause to herd, drive, or crowd together
From this reading What means this crowd of men And women here in peaceful Bethlehem?
issue a decree
From this reading Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.
every one of two or more people or things, taken separately
From this reading Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.
all the members of a group, with none left out
From this reading Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.
an old form of “has”
From this reading Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.
in or at this place; where the speaker or writer is
From this reading What means this crowd of men And women here in peaceful Bethlehem?
king of Judea who (according to the New Testament) tried to kill Jesus by ordering the death of all children under age two in Bethlehem (73-4 BC)
From this reading Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.
the male already mentioned, as the object of a verb or preposition
From this reading SIMEON (_comes to him_).
belonging to a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned
From this reading Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading What means this crowd of men And women here in peaceful Bethlehem?
(Old Testament) the second patriarch; son of Abraham and Sarah who was offered by Abraham as a sacrifice to God; father of Jacob and Esau
From this reading (_Starts off right._) ISAAC.
past form of “issue” — prepare and issue for public distribution or sale
From this reading Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.
a male sovereign; ruler of a kingdom
From this reading Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.
of comparatively little physical weight or density
From this reading Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.
thing or person that acts to produce a particular effect or achieve an end
From this reading What means this crowd of men And women here in peaceful Bethlehem?
the force of workers available
From this reading What means this crowd of men And women here in peaceful Bethlehem?
used to say something is necessary, or almost certainly true
From this reading Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.
an old word for “no”
From this reading Nay, Simeon, wait!
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading What means this crowd of men And women here in peaceful Bethlehem?
from a particular thing or place or position (“forth” is obsolete)
From this reading (_Starts off right._) ISAAC.
used to mean any person in general, including the speaker
From this reading Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.
not disturbed by strife or turmoil or war
From this reading What means this crowd of men And women here in peaceful Bethlehem?
record in writing; enter into a book of names or events or transactions
From this reading Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.
go or come back to place, condition, or activity where one has been before
From this reading Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.
precisely, exactly
From this reading (_Starts off right._) ISAAC.
cut with a saw
From this reading Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.
(Old Testament) the 2nd son of Jacob and one of the 12 patriarchs of Israel
From this reading Nay, Simeon, wait!
plural of “start” — the beginning of anything
From this reading (_Starts off right._) ISAAC.
plural of “subject” — the subject matter of a conversation or discussion
From this reading Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.
past form of “tax” — levy a tax on
From this reading Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.
used to introduce what somebody said, thought, or felt
From this reading Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.
used for a person or thing that is near, or that has just been mentioned
From this reading What means this crowd of men And women here in peaceful Bethlehem?
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading SIMEON (_comes to him_).
On the present night.
From this reading Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.
an urban area with a fixed boundary that is smaller than a city
From this reading Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.
stay in one place and anticipate or expect something
From this reading Nay, Simeon, wait!
used to ask for information about something
From this reading What means this crowd of men And women here in peaceful Bethlehem?
which person or people
From this reading Herod the King hath issued a decree That each and all his subjects taxed be; And every one who in this town saw light Must here return and register tonight.
plural of “woman” — an adult female person (as opposed to a man)
From this reading What means this crowd of men And women here in peaceful Bethlehem?
Chapter 1 of The White Christmas and other Merry by Walter Ben Hare holds 353 sentences, grouped into 71 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 353 sentences of The White Christmas and other Merry, unabridged, divided into 71 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 1 of The White Christmas and other Merry by Walter Ben Hare exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 353 sentences, grouped into 71 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 71 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 71 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 White Christmas and other Merry by Walter Ben Hare on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 4783 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #19826 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #19826, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 398 minutes of reading across 957 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The White Christmas and other Merry section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 12 chapters of The White Christmas and other Merry 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 White Christmas and other Merry, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
