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Chameleon


Он бежит за ней и, подавшись туловищем вперёд, падает на землю и хватает собаку за задние лапы.

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He runs after her and, pitching his body forward, falls to the ground and seizes the dog by her hind legs.

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Where it stands

Очумелов глядит в сторону и видит: из дровяного склада купца Пичугина, прыгая на трёх ногах и оглядываясь, бежит собака. Ochumelov glances aside and sees: out of the timber yard of Pichugin the merchant, hopping on three legs and looking back as she goes, runs a dog.

За ней гонится человек в ситцевой крахмальной рубахе и расстёгнутой жилетке. After her races a man in a starched cotton shirt and an unbuttoned waistcoat.

Слышен вторично собачий визг и крик: «Не пущай!» A second time the dog’s yelping is heard, and a shout: “Don’t let her go!”

Из лавок высовываются сонные физиономии, и скоро около дровяного склада, словно из земли выросши, собирается толпа. Sleepy faces poke out of the shops, and soon a crowd has gathered by the timber yard, as though it had sprung up out of the ground.

The words in this sentence

он
he
бежи́т
runs (3sg of бежать) — бежать
за
behind, beyond; for (+ acc/instr)
ней
her (oblique of она after preposition) — она
и
and; also, even
пода́вшись
having leaned, moved (gerund) — податься
ту́ловищем
torso/trunk (instr sg) — туловище
вперёд
forward; in advance — вперед
па́дает
falls (3sg) — падать
на
on, onto; at
зе́млю
earth, ground (acc sg) — земля
хвата́ет
to seize, grab (v., impf.) — хватать
соба́ку
dog (acc sg) — собака
за
by (seizing hold of) (prep.)
за́дние
hind, back (pl) — задний
ла́пы
paws (nom/acc pl); of a paw (gen sg) — лапа

А. П. Чехов, «Хамелеон», 1884 · sentence 6 of 53

This is one sentence of «Хамелеон» — 53 sentences long, and the whole story reads like this: every word glossed where it stands, the English out of your eyeline until you ask for it. Free: the reader opens the first instalment with no account and the rest with a free account, and the page with the English under every line needs none at all.

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