Contoh Soal Understanding similes (1)
Contoh Soal Understanding similes (1) - It’s dinnertime and my mother is busy as a bee in the kitchen. She has a lot of cooking to do. Although my brother Pete is thin as a reed, he can eat like a horse!
The lines above have some special expressions: as busy as a bee, thin as a reed, eat like a horse. These expressions compare a person or a situation to something else, and tell you more about that person or a situation. These expressions are called similes.
Let’s look at them in detail.
Mother is busy as a bee. If you’ve seen a bee at work, you know it’s always buzzing about and working hard, without a moment’s rest. Mother is doing the same in the kitchen. So she is as busy as a bee.
Pete is thin as a reed, but he eats like a horse. A reed is a stalk of grass, and we all know how thin one single stalk of grass is! Pete is not really as thin as that, but this is just a way of saying that he is thinner than most people. He eats like a horse, and if you’ve ever seen a horse eating, you’ll know that horses like to eat quite a lot.
It’s easy to spot a simile in a sentence. The simile usually begins with “like _____” or looks like this “as ______ as _____.” Some examples:
Like sunshine
Like a fairytale
Like a pig
Or
As slow as a snail
As sharp as a knife
As cold as ice
When you look at a full sentence or paragraph, you’ll be able to understand the meaning of a simile easily. Let’s try with one example.
When I woke up on my birthday, my mother surprised me with a cake, a gift, and a trip to the beach! It was like a fairytale!
Lots of nice and unexpected things happened on my birthday, so “like a fairytale” means very nice and magical.
When the teacher asked our class what the capital of Bahrain was, everyone was quiet as a mouse.
Mice are very quiet creatures usually, and you could have one in the room and not know it is there at all! The students were all as quiet as that, because nobody knew the answer!
So now we have a good idea of what similes are, and how they work. Remember these things about similes:
- They give us information about a person, thing or situation by comparing it to something else
- They often begin with “like ____” or “as ____ as _____”
- They are quite direct and become easier to understand when we read the whole sentence or passage.
S1
I was not sure if there was enough pizza for eight guests, so I ate like a bird.
What do you think eating like a bird means?
S2
The lit-up garden where we went for the party was like a dream.
What do you think "like a dream" means?
S3
The film was so long and uninteresting, it was like watching paint dry!
What do you think "like watching paint dry" means?
S4
Mary’s face is like an open book. She cannot hide her joy or sorrow!
What does “like an open book” mean?
S5
All my complaints about the loud music in my sister’s room were of no use. They were like water off a duck’s back.
What do you think this simile means?
S6
Beneath Dad’s strict personality lies a gentle heart. He is like an onion!
How do you think someone can be like an onion?
S7
Peter was scared of skating at first, but then he took to it like a fish to water!
What do you think "like a fish to water" means?
S8
When I’m studying for a test late at night, my brain is like a sieve. The next morning I wonder if I have studied at all.
What does "like a sieve" mean?
S9
When the cage door was opened, the dove flew out like the wind.
What does "like the wind" mean?
S10
I had worked like a dog to prepare the house for the party, and was so happy when everyone said it looked beautiful!
What does "like a dog" mean?