Question

Highlight key images in the passage.

The windows were ajar and gleaming white against the fresh grass outside that seemed to grow a little way into the house. A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding-cake of the ceiling, and then rippled over the wine-colored rug, making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea.

Answer 1

Here are the passage’s key images, with a brief note on what each evokes and the device used:

- "The windows were ajar and gleaming white"
- Visual image; suggests brightness, cleanliness, openness.

- "fresh grass outside that seemed to grow a little way into the house"
- Visual & tactile implication; personification/blurred boundary between outside and inside, suggesting immediacy of nature or intrusion of the outdoors.

- "A breeze blew through the room"
- Kinesthetic/tactile image; introduces motion and a cooling, alive atmosphere.

- "blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags"
- Simile and visual image; compares curtains to flags—implies motion, lightness, and a hint of ceremony or signal.

- "twisting them up toward the frosted wedding-cake of the ceiling"
- Metaphor and visual image; ceiling compared to a frosted wedding cake—ornate, white, decorative; "twisting up" emphasizes swirling motion.

- "rippled over the wine-colored rug"
- Visual and motion image; "rippled" echoes water movement, and the deep color contrast (wine) adds richness.

- "making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea"
- Simile and visual image; the shadow’s movement likened to wind on the sea—extends the watery metaphor and reinforces fluid, shifting light.

Overall effect: vivid, kinetic blending of indoor and outdoor elements through color, motion, and metaphor—creates a sense of liveliness, delicacy, and slightly surreal domestic beauty.