Figurative Language (Definitions)
A comparison using "like" or "as" Ex. "Life is like a box of chocolates."
What is a simile?
What is the oldest university in the United States? Well, that is a somewhat controversial topic.
Harvard University, established in 1636, has claimed to be the oldest institution of higher education, and that is generally accepted. However, since the Philippines was a U.S. territory from 1898 to 1946, the University of Santo Tomas, established in 1611, was for a time the oldest university in a U.S. territory. The University of Pennsylvania considers itself the first official university in America, a claim stated on its website. Johns Hopkins University claims to be the first research university in America: a differentiation that has been accepted as necessary. The College of William and Mary has said it is the second oldest institution of higher learning in America.
What does controversial mean?
a. causing an argument
b. detailing an agreement
c. introducing a selection
d. concluding a discussion
a. causing an argument
Your eyes are as green as the grass in the summer time.
This is an example of...
Simile
Justin was excited about inviting friends over, eating a good meal, and ___ .
a. …a game of cards.
b. …to play cards.
c. ...playing a game of cards.
c. ...playing a game of cards
Read the following quote from the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Remarque.
"Bed 26, amputated thigh."
He sniffs: "How should I know anything about it, I've amputated five legs to-day;" he shoves me away, says to the hospital orderly. "You see to it," and hurries off to the operating room.
Which of the following themes does the quote represent?
a. destruction of nature
b. dehumanization
c. generational responsibility
b. dehumanization
Direct comparison Ex. "The front is a cage."
What is a metaphor?
The lacemaker’s wrinkled hands are surprisingly agile. This seventy-something lady in Prainha, on the northeastern coast of Brazil, rapidly maneuvers two dozen wooden bobbins, which make a pleasant clicking sound as she works. Seeming to read my mind, she smiles and says that her fingers have worked these bobbins since she was old enough to follow her mother’s directions. Incongruously, her frenetic movements produce a minuscule lace fragment. In fact, a full day’s work yields just a few inches of delicate finery.
What is the meaning of the word frenetic?
a. relaxed
b. active
c. fragile
d. clumsy
b. active
Wallace walked wearily while wondering where Wendal was.
What literary device does this sentence rely on?
Alliteration
2. I have always enjoyed reading the book more than _____________________.
a. …I watched the movie version.
b. …watching the movie.
c. …to watch the movie.
b. …watching the movie.
I tried something that my mom made for dinner. It was so awful that before I realized what I was doing, I expectorated it. My mom was furious with me.
The word expectorated as used in the above sentence probably means:
a. threw up
b. spit out
c. swallowed
d. chewed up
b. spit out
Gives human characteristics to non-humans. Ex. "The trees whispered in the breeze."
What is personification?
What is the meaning of laborious based on the sentences below?
“Incongruously, her frenetic movements produce a minuscule lace fragment. In fact, a full day’s work yields just a few inches of delicate finery."
“The extraordinarily laborious craft of bobbin lace (renda di bilros in Portuguese) came to Brazil along with Portuguese colonists who claimed its beautiful northeastern coastline as their own in the seventeenth century.”
a. easily performed
b. extremely dull
c. excessively difficult
d. quickly finished
c. excessively difficult
“Hatred is a leech: The thing that sticks to a person's skin; that feeds off them and drains the sap out of one's spirit. It changes a person, and does not leave until it has sucked the last drop of peace from them.”
What literary device is used in this quote?
Metaphor
3. When the weather outside is cold and ________, I like to be indoors.
a. …starting to get windy…
b. …windy…
c. …getting windy…
b. …windy…
It was so embarrassing. I spilled my drink in the class. To make matters worse, it spilled on my pants. Then my teacher stopped the whole class to wait while I cleaned it up. I hate it when everyone is staring at me.
What is the tone of the passage?
a. annoyed
b. apathetic
c. humiliated
d. paranoid
c. humiliated
A statement that is not meant to be taken literally. Ex. "Are you pulling my leg?"
What is an idiom?
What does pabulum mean in the sentences below?
“The human pabulum in its original form flies, swims, and grows on trees. Who would have thought it your Excellency?” said the one Official.
“To be sure,” rejoined the other Official. “I, too, must admit that I had imagined that our breakfast rolls came into the world just as they appear on the table.”
a. body
b. food
c. enemy
d. medicine
b. food
"The first blow of the lash felt as if our spine had been cut in two."
What is the quote and example of?
hyperbole and/or simile
4. Running, lifting, and ____________ are three of Ashley’s favorite exercises.
a. …racquetball…
b. …a spinning class…
c. …bicycling…
c. …bicycling…
The coach yelled at us for losing the game. I didn't see what the big deal was. It's not like we're professional athletes or anything. Besides, my mom is taking me to Bojangles after the game whether we win or lose.
What is the tone of this passage?
a. angry
b. ecstatic
c. indifferent
d. sarcastic
c. indifferent
Extreme exaggeration. Ex. "I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse."
What is a hyperbole?
It hasn’t been easy to design an energy-efficient lighting appliance that consumers embrace as warmly as the gadget that Thomas Edison first fashioned 131 years ago in a Menlo Park, New Jersey, laboratory with carbonized thread from his wife’s sewing kit.
What does the word fashioned mean?
a. inhibited
b. envisioned
c. demolished
d. formulated
d. formulated
Garret was a D student, but he was popular in school because he goofed around in class and made fart noises whenever a teacher called him out. Garret was the king of fart noises at Trace Middle. He was most famous for farting the first line of the Pledge of Allegiance during homeroom. And Garret's mother was a guidance counselor at Trace.
Which figurative of speech is it using?
Irony
The dictionary can be used for these purposes: to find word meanings, pronunciations, correct spellings, and looking up irregular verbs.
How should the sentence be changed?
remove "looking up"
Bruce Willis was a wild man even in his high school years. DESPITE SERVING AS STUDENT COUNCIL PRESIDENT, he was expelled for three months for his role in a school cafeteria riot. And, at the height of the streaking craze, Willis was the only kid in town brazen enough to run naked - right down Main Street.
The author chose to put the phrase in ALL CAPS into the story because the author:
a. does not like the student council
b. feels like a student council president should know better
c. feels it makes Bruce's actions seem even wilder since he was a STUCO president
d. needed more information to make the story long enough
c. feels it makes Bruce's actions seem even wilder since he was a STUCO president