Use the paragraph to complete the activity.

Question

Melanie walked out onto the stage, and her stomach dropped like a free-falling elevator. She crept slowly over to the podium and bent the microphone toward her mouth, like the straw in her pink lemonade. She gathered up all of her courage and began to speak, her voice an impostor as it boomed through the microphone. She flinched at its unfamiliarity and scanned the room for her mother's face.
In three to five sentences, identify two examples of figurative language from the passage above and explain what each example of figurative language means.

Answer 1

In the passage, the phrase "her stomach dropped like a free-falling elevator" is an example of simile, comparing the sensation of anxiety to the sudden and frightening drop experienced in a falling elevator. This illustrates Melanie's intense nervousness as she steps onto the stage. Another example is "her voice an impostor as it boomed through the microphone," which uses metaphor to suggest that her voice feels foreign or unrecognizable to her, emphasizing her discomfort and lack of confidence while speaking in front of an audience.