Practice:

Exercise 4.3. Read the following sentences and choose cases of simile, periphrasis, euphemism, hyperbole, understatement from the units in bolt type. Speak about the effect produced by the given sentences:

Example:

Her hands were in her lap, her fingers at war with one another. /Dean Koontz The Vision/

In this sentence Dean Koontz shows that the character is very nervous. To render the idea the author resorts to the periphrasis “at war with one another”, which means that though she laced her fingers together, she couldn’t keep them quiet.

1. Since the birth of their baby, Natalie had dieted away to nothing. /Jackie Collins Sinners/

2. “I don’t like this actress, she lookslike a Pekinese,” Cy said. /Jackie Collins Sinners/

3. We wound up in her flat. By that time, although I had drunk enough to sink a battleship, I still felt sober – though extremely morose. /Susan Lewis Dance While You Can/

4. “Ooohh!” Myra cried, shaking like a bowl of jelly on a plate. “Ooooh! Ooooooh my God!” /Stephen King Needful Things/

5. “So you’re playing turtle,” she said. “you think you can pull your head under your shell and close up tight.” /Dean Koontz Whispers/

6. “Nap time?”

“After I clean up.” She rubbed her arms. “I’m crusted with salt.” /Jonathan Kellerman The Web/

7. “I have a few last minute points to dish out. Let me see. Yes… First – to Mr. Ronald Weasley…”

Ron went purple in the face; he lookedlike a radish with a bad sunburn. /J.K. Rowling Harry Potter & the Philosopher’s Stone/

8. Jenny and Sam have been brilliant this week. It was probably very unprofessional to spill the beans about Jack on my first day, but they didn’t seem to mind. /Josie Lloyd & Emlyn Rees Come Together/

9. The liftman was pleased to see him. “My little girl was thrilled to insanity with the photo, Mr. Brick.” /Jackie Collins Sinners/

10. After a time, he did grow drowsy, although even a primordial rhythm and mesmeric power of the sea coudln’t bar Joanna from his mind: She was the only swimmer in the current of his dreams. /Dean Koontz The Key to Midnight/

11. When Trisha finished the last handful, she realized she wasn’t just full but gorged, […] her midsection feltlike an overloaded Christmas stocking. /Stephen King The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon/

12. In fact, Dusty was the wisest man Martie ever known. The engine between his ears was even more finely tuned than her father’s had been. /Dean Koontz False Memory/

13. Lori Draper rolled her eyes. “Jeez, Shelly, we broke it off months ago. Do you think I’m going to jump him on national TV or what?” /Nora Roberts Private Secrets/

14. Standing in the centre of a long and desolate field of white, Dennis heard that voice, as dry and scabrous as a spider’s scuttle, in his worn head. /Stephen King The Eyes of the Dragon/

15. It gnawed at my father inside that all he could do was sit and wait.

“Does anyone want more tea?” he said, desperate to do something, anything to make our miserable lot a little better.

“We’ll have tea coming out of our ears,” my mum said. “Just sit down and relax.” /Tony Parson Man and Boy/

Checking Your Progress:

Exercise 4.4. Read the following sentences and point out cases of simile, periphrasis, euphemism, and hyperbole. Speak about the effect produced:

Example:

Whenever she and Max had argued, whenever she had reasons to worry about his leaving, she forced him to pick up the olive branch. /Dean Koontz The Vision/

From this fragment one can see that the woman wanted to keep Max by her side very much. The concessive clauses, which start the fragment, show that every time she thought their relationship was on the verge of being broken, she always tried to smooth things over. This idea is expressed through the periphrasis “to pick up the olive branch”. The fact that “she forced him to pick up the olive branch” means that she was first to make a sign of peace.

1. [After four days of wondering in the woods] Her hair hung in the eye, her filthy shirt flapped, and every now and again she hitched at her jeans, which had been all right when she put then on a thousand years ago but no longer wanted to stay up. /Stephen King The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon/

2. She had changed into a silk jersey floor-legnth dress which clung to her like a second skin. /Jackie Collins Sinners/

3.  She had lost her child and her husband in the same year, the man first, and then the boy, the son to the grave and the husband to the winds of change. /Dean Koontz The Eyes of Darkness/

4. And the fleet of little boats moved off at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. /J.K. Rowling Harry Potter & the Philosopher’s Stone/

5. Raf’s studio was the wrong end of Fulham Road, and it took her ages to find it. /Jackie Collins Sinners/

6. As Vivienne reached the back of the house, the crescent moon slid out from behind one of the few thin clouds, like a scimitar being drawn from a scabbard. /Dean Koontz The Eyes of Darkness/

7. And the betrayal had come, with its keen-edged disillusionment, she might have whimpered, but she’d licked her wounds and had used everything she’d learned – until the student became the master. /Nora Roberts Private Secrets/

8. He was white and unrecognizable, his eyes lackluster, as if somebody had turned out the lights behind them. /Jackie Collins Sinners/

9. He watched him lurch back and forth restlessly from one end of the servants’ kitchen to the other with cold chicken leg clutched like a club in one hand. /Stephen King The Eyes of the Dragon/

10. You don’t want to know what I think. If I play my cards right, there’s going to be a wedding, but it won’t be with you. /Sidney Sheldon Nothing Lasts Forever/

11. She was a small, nervous girl who wouldn’t be doing this job for much longer. Her fingernails were already chewed to the knuckle. /Tony Parson Man and Boy/

12. Some people for whom she cleaned house insisted that she keep regularly appointments, and they did a slow burn if she showed up more than few minutes late. /Dean Koontz The Eyes of Darkness/

13. Professor Binns opened his notes and began to read in a flat drone like an old vacuum cleaner until nearly everyone in the class was in a deep stupor, occasionally coming round long enough to copy down a name or date, then falling asleep again. /J. Rowling Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets/

14. All that was left of the shark was a stain. /Jonathan Kellerman The Web/

15. Ash-blond, green-eyed, petite, with exquisitely sculptured features, with skin as flawless as that of a peach on a tree in Eden, she had turned more heads than a coven of chiropractors. /Dean Koontz False Memory/