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What Is Man? and Other Essays
What Is Man? and Other Essays

Chapter I · Chapter 1

Chapter 1 of What Is Man? and Other Essays is here in full — 125 sentences across 25 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.

Cover illustration for What Is Man? and Other Essays
Context Illustration Reading 1/25 · 5 lines
English subtitles · tap any word to listen 1 / 5
a.
Man the Machine. b.
Personal Merit [The Old Man and the Young Man had been conversing.
The Old Man had asserted that the human being is merely a machine, and nothing more.
The Young Man objected, and asked him to go into particulars and furnish his reasons for his position.]
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AI-generated narration by OpenAI · Slow US English
LEARNER DICTIONARY
Archivist
/ˈɑːrkɪvɪst/
Editorial verification pending

A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.

What Is Man? and Other Essays

Chapter I · Chapter 1

Chapter 1 of What Is Man? and Other Essays is here in full — 125 sentences across 25 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.

Reading 1/25 · 5 reading units · Lines 1–5

Line 1
a.
Line 2
Man the Machine. b.
Line 3
Personal Merit [The Old Man and the Young Man had been conversing.
Line 4
The Old Man had asserted that the human being is merely a machine, and nothing more.
Line 5
The Young Man objected, and asked him to go into particulars and furnish his reasons for his position.]

All words in this reading · 33

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.

a

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading a.

and

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading Personal Merit [The Old Man and the Young Man had been conversing.

asked

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading The Young Man objected, and asked him to go into particulars and furnish his reasons for his position.]

asserted

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading The Old Man had asserted that the human being is merely a machine, and nothing more.

b

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading Man the Machine. b.

been

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading Personal Merit [The Old Man and the Young Man had been conversing.

being

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading The Old Man had asserted that the human being is merely a machine, and nothing more.

conversing

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading Personal Merit [The Old Man and the Young Man had been conversing.

for

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading The Young Man objected, and asked him to go into particulars and furnish his reasons for his position.]

furnish

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading The Young Man objected, and asked him to go into particulars and furnish his reasons for his position.]

go

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading The Young Man objected, and asked him to go into particulars and furnish his reasons for his position.]

had

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading Personal Merit [The Old Man and the Young Man had been conversing.

him

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading The Young Man objected, and asked him to go into particulars and furnish his reasons for his position.]

his

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading The Young Man objected, and asked him to go into particulars and furnish his reasons for his position.]

human

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading The Old Man had asserted that the human being is merely a machine, and nothing more.

into

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading The Young Man objected, and asked him to go into particulars and furnish his reasons for his position.]

is

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading The Old Man had asserted that the human being is merely a machine, and nothing more.

Machine

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading Man the Machine. b.

Man

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading Man the Machine. b.

merely

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading The Old Man had asserted that the human being is merely a machine, and nothing more.

Merit

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading Personal Merit [The Old Man and the Young Man had been conversing.

more

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading The Old Man had asserted that the human being is merely a machine, and nothing more.

nothing

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading The Old Man had asserted that the human being is merely a machine, and nothing more.

objected

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading The Young Man objected, and asked him to go into particulars and furnish his reasons for his position.]

Old

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading Personal Merit [The Old Man and the Young Man had been conversing.

particulars

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading The Young Man objected, and asked him to go into particulars and furnish his reasons for his position.]

Personal

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading Personal Merit [The Old Man and the Young Man had been conversing.

position

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading The Young Man objected, and asked him to go into particulars and furnish his reasons for his position.]

reasons

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading The Young Man objected, and asked him to go into particulars and furnish his reasons for his position.]

that

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading The Old Man had asserted that the human being is merely a machine, and nothing more.

the

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading Man the Machine. b.

to

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading The Young Man objected, and asked him to go into particulars and furnish his reasons for his position.]

Young

Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.

From this reading Personal Merit [The Old Man and the Young Man had been conversing.

Chapter 1 of What Is Man? and Other Essays by Mark Twain holds 125 sentences, grouped into 25 reading sections of at most 5 sentences. The text is the public-domain source, 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.

What does chapter 1 of What Is Man? and Other Essays contain?

Chapter 1 holds 125 sentences of What Is Man? and Other Essays, unabridged, divided into 25 reading sections.

This page carries chapter 1 of What Is Man? and Other Essays by Mark Twain exactly as it stands in the public-domain source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 125 sentences, grouped into 25 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.

How do I study chapter 1 of What Is Man? and Other Essays?

Work through the 25 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.

Each of the 25 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.

Can chapter 1 be read aloud to me?

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.

Questions about reading What Is Man? and Other Essays

Common questions about reading What Is Man? and Other Essays by Mark Twain on this page, its source edition and its audio.

Is this the complete text of What Is Man? and Other Essays?

Yes. All 5187 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #70 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.

Which edition of What Is Man? and Other Essays is used?

Project Gutenberg eBook #70, a public-domain edition. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.

How long does What Is Man? and Other Essays take to read?

About 432 minutes of reading across 1038 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.

How to read What Is Man? and Other Essays section by section

How to work through What Is Man? and Other Essays section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.

  1. Open a chapter

    Choose one of the 32 chapters of What Is Man? and Other Essays to begin.

  2. Read one section

    Each section holds 5 sentences; read it once through.

  3. Listen and tap

    Play the section aloud, then tap any unfamiliar word for its entry.

Vocabulary met early in What Is Man? and Other Essays

Words and structures a reader meets early in What Is Man? and Other Essays, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.

Machine
A word that appears in the opening chapter of What Is Man? and Other Essays; the reader can tap it to hear it and see its dictionary entry.
Personal
A word that appears in the opening chapter of What Is Man? and Other Essays; the reader can tap it to hear it and see its dictionary entry.
Merit
A word that appears in the opening chapter of What Is Man? and Other Essays; the reader can tap it to hear it and see its dictionary entry.
Young
A word that appears in the opening chapter of What Is Man? and Other Essays; the reader can tap it to hear it and see its dictionary entry.