Chapter 6 of Venus Boy is here in full — 424 sentences across 85 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter VI
Chapter 6 of Venus Boy is here in full — 424 sentences across 85 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Johnny stopped singing and looked down. The leopardess was on her feet now, looking into the sky. Johnny looked too. A helicopter floated soundlessly overhead, its jets off. Johnny looked around for some place to hide.
Chapter 6 of Venus Boy is here in full — 424 sentences across 85 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/84 · 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.
past form of “float” — be in motion due to some air or water current
From this reading “A helicopter floated soundlessly overhead, its jets off.”
an aircraft without wings that obtains its lift from the rotation of overhead blades
From this reading “A helicopter floated soundlessly overhead, its jets off.”
prevent from being seen or discovered
From this reading “Johnny looked around for some place to hide.”
plural of “jet” — an airplane powered by one or more jet engines
From this reading “A helicopter floated soundlessly overhead, its jets off.”
“Johnny” was applied as a nickname for Confederate soldiers by the Federal soldiers in the American Civil War; “greyback” derived from their grey Confederate uniforms
From this reading “Johnny stopped singing and looked down.”
above your head; in the sky
From this reading “A helicopter floated soundlessly overhead, its jets off.”
the act of singing vocal music
From this reading “Johnny stopped singing and looked down.”
the atmosphere and outer space as viewed from the earth
From this reading “The leopardess was on her feet now, looking into the sky.”
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.
look about oneself
In this reading “Johnny looked around for some place to hide.”
In this reading “Johnny stopped singing and looked down.”
In this reading “Johnny stopped singing and looked down.”
In this reading “The leopardess was on her feet now, looking into the sky.”
In this reading “Johnny looked around for some place to hide.”
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 A helicopter floated soundlessly overhead, its jets off.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading Johnny stopped singing and looked down.
surrounding, or on every side of, something
From this reading Johnny looked around for some place to hide.
being or moving lower in position or less in some value
From this reading Johnny stopped singing and looked down.
plural of “foot” — the part of the leg of a human being below the ankle joint
From this reading The leopardess was on her feet now, looking into the sky.
past form of “float” — be in motion due to some air or water current
From this reading A helicopter floated soundlessly overhead, its jets off.
intended to be given to, or used by, somebody
From this reading Johnny looked around for some place to hide.
an aircraft without wings that obtains its lift from the rotation of overhead blades
From this reading A helicopter floated soundlessly overhead, its jets off.
belonging to a woman, girl, or female animal already mentioned
From this reading The leopardess was on her feet now, looking into the sky.
prevent from being seen or discovered
From this reading Johnny looked around for some place to hide.
moving to the inside of something
From this reading The leopardess was on her feet now, looking into the sky.
belonging to the thing or animal already mentioned
From this reading A helicopter floated soundlessly overhead, its jets off.
plural of “jet” — an airplane powered by one or more jet engines
From this reading A helicopter floated soundlessly overhead, its jets off.
“Johnny” was applied as a nickname for Confederate soldiers by the Federal soldiers in the American Civil War; “greyback” derived from their grey Confederate uniforms
From this reading Johnny stopped singing and looked down.
female leopard
From this reading The leopardess was on her feet now, looking into the sky.
past form of “look” — perceive with attention; direct one's gaze towards
From this reading Johnny stopped singing and looked down.
the act of directing the eyes toward something and perceiving it visually
From this reading The leopardess was on her feet now, looking into the sky.
in the historical present; at this point in the narration of a series of past events
From this reading The leopardess was on her feet now, looking into the sky.
from a particular thing or place or position (“forth” is obsolete)
From this reading A helicopter floated soundlessly overhead, its jets off.
touching and supported by a surface
From this reading The leopardess was on her feet now, looking into the sky.
above your head; in the sky
From this reading A helicopter floated soundlessly overhead, its jets off.
a point located with respect to surface features of some region
From this reading Johnny looked around for some place to hide.
the act of singing vocal music
From this reading Johnny stopped singing and looked down.
the atmosphere and outer space as viewed from the earth
From this reading The leopardess was on her feet now, looking into the sky.
(quantifier) used with either mass nouns or plural count nouns to indicate an unspecified number or quantity
From this reading Johnny looked around for some place to hide.
without a sound
From this reading A helicopter floated soundlessly overhead, its jets off.
(of a nose) blocked
From this reading Johnny stopped singing and looked down.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading The leopardess was on her feet now, looking into the sky.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading Johnny looked around for some place to hide.
to a degree exceeding normal or proper limits
From this reading Johnny looked too.
the past form of “be” used with I, he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading The leopardess was on her feet now, looking into the sky.
Chapter 6 of Venus Boy by Lee Sutton holds 424 sentences, grouped into 85 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 6 holds 424 sentences of Venus Boy, unabridged, divided into 85 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 6 of Venus Boy by Lee Sutton exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 424 sentences, grouped into 85 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 85 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 85 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 6 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 Venus Boy by Lee Sutton on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 3860 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #50702 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #50702, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 321 minutes of reading across 772 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through Venus Boy section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 9 chapters of Venus Boy 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 Venus Boy, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
