S1 Exercise 21: Similes (1)
FIGURES OF SPEECH
SIMILES 1
Writers often use similes to make their descriptions clearer and more interesting.
A simile describes one thing by comparing it to another using “like” (e.g. run like the wind) or “as...as” (e.g. as black as coal).
However, the best similes are much more original and interesting than those we use every day.
TASK 1: Read the extracts below and for each one write down the similes.
- “They looked as though they sprouted from the earth. Between them, in glistening white, were rows of steps fanned out like a peacock’s plume. Two spectators sat on the green lawn in wide frame chairs”.
- “That night it was as dark as a snake hole in the long, low cabin where Julie and Lisa lay on their heap of rags on the hard dirt floor. There was a wisp of wind and the heat of the day stayed inside like a burning log”.
- “It didn’t come. The clouds eased away as silent as big balls of cotton, and the sun shot out from under them into a blue patch of sky”.
- “One minute they mourned for a man in misery – the next minute they laughed like the merry tunes of a fiddle. The small, cruel eyes of Ol’ Sims were always the same”.
TASK 2: Now write a sentence below, about each simile you have picked out, explaining what the simile is comparing and why you think it is or is not a good comparison to make.