Chapter 3 of Twenty-three and a half hours' leave is here in full — 427 sentences across 86 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter III
Chapter 3 of Twenty-three and a half hours' leave is here in full — 427 sentences across 86 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
For some five minutes Mr. Booth alternately disappeared under a black cloth and reappeared again. The sergeant felt that under a pretence of focusing he was being subjected to a close scrutiny, and bore himself carefully and well. When at last it was over Mr. Booth put a question. “Want these in a hurry, I suppose?” “Hurry?
Chapter 3 of Twenty-three and a half hours' leave is here in full — 427 sentences across 86 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/85 · 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.
in an alternating sequence or position
From this reading “For some five minutes Mr. Booth alternately disappeared under a black cloth and reappeared again.”
a table (in a restaurant or bar) surrounded by two high-backed benches
From this reading “For some five minutes Mr. Booth alternately disappeared under a black cloth and reappeared again.”
artifact made by weaving or felting or knitting or crocheting natural or synthetic fibers
From this reading “For some five minutes Mr. Booth alternately disappeared under a black cloth and reappeared again.”
the concentration of attention or energy on something
From this reading “The sergeant felt that under a pretence of focusing he was being subjected to a close scrutiny, and bore himself carefully and well.”
past form of “reappear” — appear again
From this reading “For some five minutes Mr. Booth alternately disappeared under a black cloth and reappeared again.”
the act of examining something closely (as for mistakes)
From this reading “The sergeant felt that under a pretence of focusing he was being subjected to a close scrutiny, and bore himself carefully and well.”
any of several noncommissioned officer ranks in the Army or Air Force or Marines ranking above a corporal
From this reading “The sergeant felt that under a pretence of focusing he was being subjected to a close scrutiny, and bore himself carefully and well.”
past form of “subject” — cause to experience or suffer or make liable or vulnerable to
From this reading “The sergeant felt that under a pretence of focusing he was being subjected to a close scrutiny, and bore himself carefully and well.”
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 “For some five minutes Mr. Booth alternately disappeared under a black cloth and reappeared again.”
In this reading “The sergeant felt that under a pretence of focusing he was being subjected to a close scrutiny, and bore himself carefully and well.”
In this reading “The sergeant felt that under a pretence of focusing he was being subjected to a close scrutiny, and bore himself carefully and well.”
In this reading “For some five minutes Mr. Booth alternately disappeared under a black cloth and reappeared again.”
In this reading “For some five minutes Mr. Booth alternately disappeared under a black cloth and reappeared again.”
In this reading ““Want these in a hurry, I suppose?””
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 For some five minutes Mr. Booth alternately disappeared under a black cloth and reappeared again.
anew
From this reading For some five minutes Mr. Booth alternately disappeared under a black cloth and reappeared again.
in an alternating sequence or position
From this reading For some five minutes Mr. Booth alternately disappeared under a black cloth and reappeared again.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading For some five minutes Mr. Booth alternately disappeared under a black cloth and reappeared again.
in or near a particular place or position
From this reading When at last it was over Mr. Booth put a question.
the -ing form of “be”
From this reading The sergeant felt that under a pretence of focusing he was being subjected to a close scrutiny, and bore himself carefully and well.
being of the achromatic color of maximum darkness; having little or no hue owing to absorption of almost all incident light
From this reading For some five minutes Mr. Booth alternately disappeared under a black cloth and reappeared again.
a table (in a restaurant or bar) surrounded by two high-backed benches
From this reading For some five minutes Mr. Booth alternately disappeared under a black cloth and reappeared again.
cause to be bored
From this reading The sergeant felt that under a pretence of focusing he was being subjected to a close scrutiny, and bore himself carefully and well.
taking care or paying attention
From this reading The sergeant felt that under a pretence of focusing he was being subjected to a close scrutiny, and bore himself carefully and well.
at or within a short distance in space or time or having elements near each other
From this reading The sergeant felt that under a pretence of focusing he was being subjected to a close scrutiny, and bore himself carefully and well.
artifact made by weaving or felting or knitting or crocheting natural or synthetic fibers
From this reading For some five minutes Mr. Booth alternately disappeared under a black cloth and reappeared again.
past form of “disappear” — get lost, as without warning or explanation
From this reading For some five minutes Mr. Booth alternately disappeared under a black cloth and reappeared again.
mat together and make felt-like
From this reading The sergeant felt that under a pretence of focusing he was being subjected to a close scrutiny, and bore himself carefully and well.
the cardinal number that is the sum of four and one
From this reading For some five minutes Mr. Booth alternately disappeared under a black cloth and reappeared again.
the concentration of attention or energy on something
From this reading The sergeant felt that under a pretence of focusing he was being subjected to a close scrutiny, and bore himself carefully and well.
intended to be given to, or used by, somebody
From this reading For some five minutes Mr. Booth alternately disappeared under a black cloth and reappeared again.
a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading The sergeant felt that under a pretence of focusing he was being subjected to a close scrutiny, and bore himself carefully and well.
used when the man or boy doing the action is also its object
From this reading The sergeant felt that under a pretence of focusing he was being subjected to a close scrutiny, and bore himself carefully and well.
a condition of urgency making it necessary to hurry
From this reading “Want these in a hurry, I suppose?”
the person speaking or writing, as the subject of the verb
From this reading “Want these in a hurry, I suppose?”
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading “Want these in a hurry, I suppose?”
a thing, animal, or idea already mentioned
From this reading When at last it was over Mr. Booth put a question.
immediately past
From this reading When at last it was over Mr. Booth put a question.
a written account of what transpired at a meeting
From this reading For some five minutes Mr. Booth alternately disappeared under a black cloth and reappeared again.
a form of address for a man
From this reading For some five minutes Mr. Booth alternately disappeared under a black cloth and reappeared again.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading The sergeant felt that under a pretence of focusing he was being subjected to a close scrutiny, and bore himself carefully and well.
above and across; more than
From this reading When at last it was over Mr. Booth put a question.
a false or unsupportable quality
From this reading The sergeant felt that under a pretence of focusing he was being subjected to a close scrutiny, and bore himself carefully and well.
put into a certain place or abstract location
From this reading When at last it was over Mr. Booth put a question.
challenge the accuracy, probity, or propriety of
From this reading When at last it was over Mr. Booth put a question.
past form of “reappear” — appear again
From this reading For some five minutes Mr. Booth alternately disappeared under a black cloth and reappeared again.
the act of examining something closely (as for mistakes)
From this reading The sergeant felt that under a pretence of focusing he was being subjected to a close scrutiny, and bore himself carefully and well.
any of several noncommissioned officer ranks in the Army or Air Force or Marines ranking above a corporal
From this reading The sergeant felt that under a pretence of focusing he was being subjected to a close scrutiny, and bore himself carefully and well.
(quantifier) used with either mass nouns or plural count nouns to indicate an unspecified number or quantity
From this reading For some five minutes Mr. Booth alternately disappeared under a black cloth and reappeared again.
past form of “subject” — cause to experience or suffer or make liable or vulnerable to
From this reading The sergeant felt that under a pretence of focusing he was being subjected to a close scrutiny, and bore himself carefully and well.
express a supposition
From this reading “Want these in a hurry, I suppose?”
used to introduce what somebody said, thought, or felt
From this reading The sergeant felt that under a pretence of focusing he was being subjected to a close scrutiny, and bore himself carefully and well.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading The sergeant felt that under a pretence of focusing he was being subjected to a close scrutiny, and bore himself carefully and well.
the plural of “this”: the people or things near, or just mentioned
From this reading “Want these in a hurry, I suppose?”
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading The sergeant felt that under a pretence of focusing he was being subjected to a close scrutiny, and bore himself carefully and well.
below or beneath something; less than
From this reading For some five minutes Mr. Booth alternately disappeared under a black cloth and reappeared again.
feel or have a desire for; want strongly
From this reading “Want these in a hurry, I suppose?”
the past form of “be” used with I, he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading The sergeant felt that under a pretence of focusing he was being subjected to a close scrutiny, and bore himself carefully and well.
(often used as a combining form) in a good or proper or satisfactory manner or to a high standard (“good” is a nonstandard dialectal variant for “well”)
From this reading The sergeant felt that under a pretence of focusing he was being subjected to a close scrutiny, and bore himself carefully and well.
at the time that
From this reading When at last it was over Mr. Booth put a question.
Chapter 3 of Twenty-three and a half hours' leave by Mary Roberts Rinehart holds 427 sentences, grouped into 86 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 3 holds 427 sentences of Twenty-three and a half hours' leave, unabridged, divided into 86 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 3 of Twenty-three and a half hours' leave by Mary Roberts Rinehart exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 427 sentences, grouped into 86 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 86 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 86 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 3 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 Twenty-three and a half hours' leave by Mary Roberts Rinehart on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 0 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #? are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #?, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 5 minutes of reading across 0 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through Twenty-three and a half hours' leave section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 0 chapters of Twenty-three and a half hours' leave 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 Twenty-three and a half hours' leave, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
