The two scenarios that are examples of verbal irony are:
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Haleed puts his father’s white lab coats into the washer and starts the machine. When the washer stops, he notices that everything is pink. He pulls out a red T-shirt and says, “I guess it’s Dad’s chance to be a fashion trendsetter.”
- This is verbal irony because Haleed acknowledges the unfortunate outcome of ruining the lab coats by joking about it in a way that suggests it's a positive thing (being a fashion trendsetter), when in reality it's a negative outcome.
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Laura moved to a new apartment that had a tiny garden where she could plant a few flowers. She bought some seedling flower plants and planted them one afternoon. The next morning, she checked on them and saw only a few short stems. “It’s good to see that the rabbits enjoyed my flowers,” she said.
- This is verbal irony as well; Laura is commenting on her disappointment in a sarcastic manner, implying that the rabbits eating her flowers is a positive experience, rather than the negative situation it actually represents.
The other scenarios do not contain verbal irony as they do not involve a discrepancy between what is said and what is meant in a similar manner.