Chapter 8 of The Young Acrobat of the Great North is here in full — 116 sentences across 24 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter VIII
Chapter 8 of The Young Acrobat of the Great North is here in full — 116 sentences across 24 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
KIT'S RIDE TO OAKFORD. Oakford was six miles away. The blacksmith's horse was seventeen years old, and did not make very good speed. Kit was unusually busy thinking. He had taken a decisive step; he had, in fact, made up his mind to enter upon a new life.
Chapter 8 of The Young Acrobat of the Great North is here in full — 116 sentences across 24 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/23 · 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.
actively or fully engaged or occupied
From this reading “Kit was unusually busy thinking.”
determining or having the power to determine an outcome
From this reading “He had taken a decisive step; he had, in fact, made up his mind to enter upon a new life.”
to come or go into
From this reading “He had taken a decisive step; he had, in fact, made up his mind to enter upon a new life.”
a case for containing a set of articles
From this reading “KIT'S RIDE TO OAKFORD.”
sit and travel on the back of animal, usually while controlling its motions
From this reading “KIT'S RIDE TO OAKFORD.”
being one more than sixteen
From this reading “The blacksmith's horse was seventeen years old, and did not make very good speed.”
move hurridly
From this reading “The blacksmith's horse was seventeen years old, and did not make very good speed.”
to a remarkable degree or extent
From this reading “Kit was unusually busy thinking.”
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 He had taken a decisive step; he had, in fact, made up his mind to enter upon a new life.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading The blacksmith's horse was seventeen years old, and did not make very good speed.
from a particular thing or place or position (“forth” is obsolete)
From this reading Oakford was six miles away.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading The blacksmith's horse was seventeen years old, and did not make very good speed.
actively or fully engaged or occupied
From this reading Kit was unusually busy thinking.
determining or having the power to determine an outcome
From this reading He had taken a decisive step; he had, in fact, made up his mind to enter upon a new life.
the past form of “do”, used in questions and negatives
From this reading The blacksmith's horse was seventeen years old, and did not make very good speed.
to come or go into
From this reading He had taken a decisive step; he had, in fact, made up his mind to enter upon a new life.
a piece of information about circumstances that exist or events that have occurred
From this reading He had taken a decisive step; he had, in fact, made up his mind to enter upon a new life.
having desirable or positive qualities especially those suitable for a thing specified
From this reading The blacksmith's horse was seventeen years old, and did not make very good speed.
the past form of “have”, used to form the past perfect
From this reading He had taken a decisive step; he had, in fact, made up his mind to enter upon a new life.
a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading He had taken a decisive step; he had, in fact, made up his mind to enter upon a new life.
belonging to a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned
From this reading He had taken a decisive step; he had, in fact, made up his mind to enter upon a new life.
solid-hoofed herbivorous quadruped domesticated since prehistoric times
From this reading The blacksmith's horse was seventeen years old, and did not make very good speed.
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading He had taken a decisive step; he had, in fact, made up his mind to enter upon a new life.
a case for containing a set of articles
From this reading Kit was unusually busy thinking.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading KIT'S RIDE TO OAKFORD.
a characteristic state or mode of living
From this reading He had taken a decisive step; he had, in fact, made up his mind to enter upon a new life.
produced by a manufacturing process
From this reading He had taken a decisive step; he had, in fact, made up his mind to enter upon a new life.
engage in
From this reading The blacksmith's horse was seventeen years old, and did not make very good speed.
plural of “mile” — a unit of length equal to 1,760 yards or 5,280 feet; exactly 1609.344 meters
From this reading Oakford was six miles away.
The element of a person that enables awareness and thought.
From this reading He had taken a decisive step; he had, in fact, made up his mind to enter upon a new life.
not of long duration; having just (or relatively recently) come into being or been made or acquired or discovered
From this reading He had taken a decisive step; he had, in fact, made up his mind to enter upon a new life.
used to make a word, phrase, or sentence negative
From this reading The blacksmith's horse was seventeen years old, and did not make very good speed.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading KIT'S RIDE TO OAKFORD.
(used especially of persons) having lived for a relatively long time or attained a specific age
From this reading The blacksmith's horse was seventeen years old, and did not make very good speed.
sit and travel on the back of animal, usually while controlling its motions
From this reading KIT'S RIDE TO OAKFORD.
being one more than sixteen
From this reading The blacksmith's horse was seventeen years old, and did not make very good speed.
the cardinal number that is the sum of five and one
From this reading Oakford was six miles away.
move hurridly
From this reading The blacksmith's horse was seventeen years old, and did not make very good speed.
any maneuver made as part of progress toward a goal
From this reading He had taken a decisive step; he had, in fact, made up his mind to enter upon a new life.
understood in a certain way; made sense of
From this reading He had taken a decisive step; he had, in fact, made up his mind to enter upon a new life.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading The blacksmith's horse was seventeen years old, and did not make very good speed.
the process of using your mind to consider something carefully
From this reading Kit was unusually busy thinking.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading KIT'S RIDE TO OAKFORD.
to a remarkable degree or extent
From this reading Kit was unusually busy thinking.
being or moving higher in position or greater in some value; being above a former position or level
From this reading He had taken a decisive step; he had, in fact, made up his mind to enter upon a new life.
a formal word for “on”
From this reading He had taken a decisive step; he had, in fact, made up his mind to enter upon a new life.
precisely as stated
From this reading The blacksmith's horse was seventeen years old, and did not make very good speed.
the past form of “be” used with I, he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading Oakford was six miles away.
a late time of life
From this reading The blacksmith's horse was seventeen years old, and did not make very good speed.
Chapter 8 of The Young Acrobat of the Great North by Horatio, Jr. Alger holds 116 sentences, grouped into 24 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 8 holds 116 sentences of The Young Acrobat of the Great North, unabridged, divided into 24 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 8 of The Young Acrobat of the Great North by Horatio, Jr. Alger exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 116 sentences, grouped into 24 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 24 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 24 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 8 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 Young Acrobat of the Great North by Horatio, Jr. Alger on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 4237 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #22521 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #22521, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 353 minutes of reading across 848 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Young Acrobat of the Great North section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 38 chapters of The Young Acrobat of the Great North 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 Young Acrobat of the Great North, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
