Figurative Language Reading Passages

LESSON 9 Figurative Language Read the passage and answer the questions. Visions of Jellyfish Meg and her father stepped through the doors of the aquarium. This was the first day of a jellyfish exhibit. Meg had been looking forward to seeing it for weeks. “Come on, Dad,” she said. They approached the first of several tall tanks. Inside, jellyfish transparent as ghosts floated through the water. Their long tentacles were party streamers trailing behind. “Look at these,” Meg whispered, moving to the second tank. “They are little brown parachutes!” “Those are Pacific sea nettles,” her dad said. You wouldn’t want to swim with one of those. They have a sting that feels like you’ve been touched by fire.” “Look at this one!” Meg said. She pointed to a tank that had a long, oval jellyfish. Rows of plates that looked like combs ran along its body. “It’s a comb jelly. Look at all the different colors, like a rainbow. It’s beautiful,” she breathed. Circle the letter of the best answer. 1. The jellyfish’s long tentacles are described as “party streamers” because they— A. B. C. D. 2. were were were were rainbows comb jellies brown parachutes the tanks in the aquarium “They have a sting that feels like you’ve been touched by fire” means that the sting— A. B. C. D. made of paper. sharp and dangerous. graceful and flowing. taped onto the jellyfish. What does Meg compare Pacific sea nettles to? A. B. C. D. 3. 4. gives a sharp, hot pain. is caused by touching fire. occurs only in the summer. leaves you feeling really tired. In the sentence, “Look at all the different colors, like a rainbow,” which word suggests there is figurative language? A. B. C. D. at like colors rainbow 119 Word Power Antonyms • Recognizing antonyms can help you determine the meanings of unknown words. • Antonyms are word pairs that have opposite or nearly opposite meanings. The word pairs hot/cold and big/small are antonyms. • If you read an unfamiliar word, look for an antonym that acts a a clue word near it. If you know the meaning of the clue word, you can figure out the meaning of its antonym. In the example The mountain pass is safe in the summer but treacherous in the winter, knowing the meaning of safe helps you figure out the meaning of treacherous, its antonym. As You Read Use a graphic organizer. Write the unfamiliar word in the center. Write the antonym on the left. Then use what you know about the meaning of the antonym to figure out the meaning of the unfamiliar word. Write the meaning on the right. Here, rain almost never falls. But a fog invariably rolls in off the sea at dawn. Antonym Meaning never always Word invariably Try It Find a word that has the opposite meaning of clamorous. Then write a definition for clamorous. On the way, we heard the notes of a jazz band, soothing as a lullaby, playing against the clamorous chatter of spectators. Antonym Meaning Word clamorous 120 • Lesson 9: Figurative Language Level 1 Ladders TO SUCCESS 2 Introducing Figurative Language When an author makes a comparison that creates a picture in the reader’s mind, the author is using figurative language. Two kinds of figurative language are simile and metaphor. In a simile, the word like or as is used to compare two things: The clouds looked like pillows. In a metaphor, two things are compared without those clue words: The clouds were pillows. You can use these tips to interpret similes and metaphors: • Ask yourself what two things are being compared. • Ask yourself what is similar about those two things. • Then form a picture in your mind. CL ue W o RDS As you read, look for the clue words like or as in a comparison to identify a simile. Think About It Read the paragraph below. Identify the figurative language and think about what it means. These striking pillars are the subject of many beautiful paintings. When you see their red shapes outlined against the sky, bright as a robin’s blue egg, you might just want to paint a picture of them, too! 1. Which clue word do you see? ______________________ 2. What is being compared to a robin’s blue egg? ______________________ 3. What does the simile mean? ______________________ Use a Strategy Monitor and Clarify When you monitor and clarify, you make sure you understand what you read. • Monitor, or check, your understanding by stopping to think about what you have read. • Clarify, or make clear, what you have read by restating ideas in your own words. • If something is unclear to you, go back and reread that part of the text. 121 Use What You Learned Read the passage. Use the notes on the side to help you. Then answer the questions on the next page. Hoodoo You Think They Are? Here, stone pillars seem to grow like trees. There are pillars everywhere. Some pillars are the height of a person. Others stand as tall as a ten-story building. This is Bryce Canyon, Utah. The stone pillars are hoodoos. Bryce Canyon is in a desert. Many mornings, frost drapes the canyon like icing on a cake. By afternoon, the canyon warms up and the frost melts away. This freezing and thawing helped to create the hoodoos. Water erosion helped, too. The hoodoos are made up of layers of rock. The layers are colorful ribbons wrapped around the stone. Different kinds of rock wear away at different speeds. These differences result in the hoodoos’ strange shapes. Some, called spires, are like great big arms reaching upward. Others are solid and broad, like a castle wall. These striking pillars are the subject of many beautiful paintings. When you see their red shapes outlined against the sky, bright as a robin’s blue egg, you might just want to paint a picture of them, too! Monitor Ask yourself if what you are reading makes sense to you. Clue Words Look for the clue words like and as to help you identify similes. Clarify Reread parts of the text that are not clear to you. GO ON 122 • Lesson 9: Figurative Language Ladders to Success 2 • Level 1 Example Choose the correct answer. Use the steps at the right to help you answer the question. In the first paragraph, the author compares some pillars to a ten-story building to show— A. B. C. D. how tall the pillars are. how well built the pillars are. how people could live in the pillars. how the pillars are in the shape of a building. Step-by-Step 1. Ask yourself what two things are being compared. I see that some pillars are compared to a ten-story building. 2. Ask yourself what is similar about the pillars and a ten-story building. I see that the author writes these pillars “stand as tall as” a ten-story building. So I know the pillars and a ten-story building both have great height. 3. Form a picture in your mind of the pillars. I see pillars that are really tall, like an office building. Now read each question. Circle the letter of the best answer. 1. Near the beginning of the second paragraph, frost is compared to— 3. A. hoodoos. A. are long and thin. B. mornings. B. seem to have sleeves. C. the desert. C. can be used to grab things. D. icing on a cake. 2. How are layers of rock and colorful ribbons alike? A. They are both easily broken. B. They are both strong and sturdy. C. They are both long stripes of color. D. They are both used to make something. The author compares spires to “great big arms reaching upward” because the spires— D. always have the same shape. 4. In the phrase “solid and broad, like a castle wall,” which word is a clue that suggests this is a simile? A. a B. like C. broad D. castle 123 Don’t Get Too Close! Posted by Reading for Real Never get too close to a live tarantula. Take it from one man who learned this lesson too late. One day, a tarantula owner was cleaning his pet’s cage. When he moved his face too close to the tarantula, he saw it rub its back legs against its body. This released a lot of tiny hairs, like a fine spray, into the owner’s face. He did not think this was harmful, but weeks later, his eyes were red and sore. He sought help from doctors. They found tiny barbed hairs attached like hooks to his eyes. It seems the tarantula was protecting itself. What a “hairy” experience for the owner! What do you think of the tarantula’s way of defending itself? C o MM e NT Write About It Now you will practice interpreting figurative language using a blog. Complete the graphic organizer. Write what is being compared to barbed hairs and how the two things are alike. First Thing Compared barbed hairs 124 • Lesson 9: Figurative Language Second Thing Compared How They Are Alike Ladders TO SUCCESS 2 Level 2 Recognizing Figurative Language Review what you learned about figurative language. Remember that when an author makes a comparison that creates a picture in the reader’s mind, he or she is using figurative language. Two kinds of figurative language are simile and metaphor. To identify figurative language: • Ask yourself what two things are being compared. • Ask yourself what picture this comparison creates in your mind. • Look for the clue words like or as in a comparison to identify a simile. Read the following passage. As you read, circle the simile and underline the metaphors. Notice how metaphors use comparisons to help create a picture in your mind. During reading time, our classroom was quiet as a library. Ms. Le interrupted the silence. “I have an exciting announcement. Next Tuesday is National Kazoo Day. In honor of this event, I will hand out kazoos for everyone, and there will be lots of activities.” The next Tuesday, our class was a hive of activity. Some kids decorated the room. Others practiced their kazoos. At 2 p.m. sharp, Ms. Le raised her arms. We all looked up. She started waving her hands, and the class began to play. We were a symphony. What we created was not Remember to Beethoven. But it was music—sort of. “Wonderful!” Ms. Le Monitor and Clarify! gushed as we finished our song. “Happy National Kazoo Day!” Use this graphic organizer to interpret a metaphor. Ask yourself what two things are compared and how they are alike. First Thing Compared Second Thing Compared the classroom a hive How They Are Alike 125 Use What You Learned Read the passage. Then answer the questions to identify figurative language. On a separate sheet of paper, make a graphic organizer to organize your thoughts. It is early morning in the Namib desert. Here, rain almost never falls. But fog invariably rolls in off the sea at dawn. A Namib beetle waits patiently. When fog spreads out like a blanket on the desert, the beetle leans forward and spreads its wings against the breeze. It is an aircraft ready to take off. But this plane does not fly. Instead it takes a drink. What does this desert beetle drink? Morning dew. This amazing insect’s hard wings have a series of bumps that attract water. In the morning fog, water drops condense on these bumps. The water drops grow bigger until they roll down into a series of channels coated in wax, which are also on the beetle’s wings. Because the wax sheds moisture, the drops of water roll through the channels and down toward the beetle’s mouth. In the Namib Desert, water is scarce. Yet thanks to the Remember to Monitor and Clarify! hills and valleys on its wings, this tiny desert beetle survives without rainfall. 1. In what way is the fog like a blanket? 2. In the first paragraph, does the author use simile or metaphor to compare a beetle to an aircraft? Explain how you know. 3. In the last paragraph, what does the author compare to hills and valleys? ________________________________________________________________________________ . 126 • Lesson 9: Figurative Language Ladders TO SUCCESS 2 Level 3 Interpreting Figurative Language To understand figurative language, ask yourself what two things are being compared and how they are alike. Then form a picture in your mind. Sometimes figurative language helps the reader imagine what the setting, or the place where a story happens, looks like. • In a simile, the word like or as is used to compare two things. • In a metaphor, two things are compared directly without clue words. • An idiom, a third type of figurative language, is an expression that has a certain meaning in everyday language that is different from what the words in the expression actually mean. Here is an example: Emily worked against the clock. You can use a graphic organizer to interpret idioms. • In the first two boxes, write the idiom and what it is referring to. • Then write the meaning of the idiom in the last box. Think About It Read the sentence below. What does the narrator mean by “could hardly take my eyes off the street”? I could hardly take my eyes off the street as my brother Jake and I walked around. Idiom What It Refers To Meaning could hardly take my eyes off the street Use a Strategy Visualize When you visualize, you create a picture in your mind of what the author is describing. • Look for details that help you create the image. • Imagine that the story or passage is a movie. Picture the setting, characters, and events. 127 Use What You Learned Read the passage. Use the notes on the side to help you. Then answer the questions on the next page. Down to a Fine Art A sign that read “Annual Chalk Art Festival” hung over the street. Already, the sidewalk was a museum. One woman was sketching a mountain stream, and a kid not much older than me outlined a butterfly. I could hardly take my eyes off the street as my brother Jake and I walked around. One picture caught my eye. An artist named Kim had sketched a doorway. I hung back, wanting to look at Kim’s drawing. “Come on, Riley,” Jake urged, “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.” I grudgingly followed Jake a few blocks down the street to a food stand selling popcorn and pretzels. The smell of butter and salt hung in the air, making my stomach growl. We each wolfed down a pretzel. Then we headed back toward Kim’s drawing. On the way, we heard the notes of a jazz band, soothing as a lullaby, playing against the clamorous chatter of spectators. When we got back to Kim’s drawing, I could not believe my eyes. There in front of me were steps descending into a subway station, except they were drawn in chalk. And emerging from the station was a chalk-drawn robot that looked so real I thought it was headed right for me. This picture was going to win the contest, hands down! Figurative Language What examples of idioms do you see? Visualize Imagine that the passage is a movie. What does the setting look like? Visualize Reread the description of Kim’s drawing. Can you see the drawing in your mind? GO ON 128 • Lesson 9: Figurative Language Ladders to Success 2 • Level 3 Read each question. Circle the letter of the best answer. 1. Why is the sidewalk compared to a museum? 4. A. because there is artwork to see B. because the sidewalk is inside a A. a simile C. because the people at the festival C. a metaphor building B. an idiom are very quiet D. because you have to buy tickets to 3. D. a paragraph Which phrase is an idiom? In the last sentence, the phrase “hands down” could be replaced with which word? A. sketched a doorway A. never B. there in front of me B. maybe C. sidewalk was a museum C. definitely D. so hungry I could eat a horse D. tomorrow get into the festival 2. “We heard the notes of a jazz band, soothing as a lullaby” is best described as— What does Riley mean when he says they each “wolfed down a pretzel”? A. They ate very slowly. B. They ate with wolves. 5. 6. On a separate sheet of paper, describe the setting of the story. Identify two examples of figurative language that help you visualize this setting. C. They ate very quickly. D. They ate without forks. 129 Picture This! Posted by Reading for Real If you visit the village of Inakadate, Japan in May, villagers are busy planting rice crops. Go back in September, and you will see that the rice is nearly ready for harvest. As you walk through the rice paddies, you will not notice anything strange. But if you climb to the top of one of the buildings in the village and look out at the fields, you will see something quite out of the ordinary. There in front of you, on the canvas of a rice paddy, might be a picture of a butterfly or frog. You might even see a likeness of a Japanese warrior. How is this possible? The villagers painstakingly plant four different kinds of rice. Each variety has a different color of leaves. With the help of computers, the sky is the limit in terms of creating intricate designs. The computers are like artists, helping villagers design pictures and figure out where to plant the rice. When the rice plants are grown, they create unique murals that can only be seen from above. C o MM e NT What picture would you make in the rice paddies? Write About It Interpret what the writer means by using the idiom “the sky is the limit” in this blog. Write your answer on a separate sheet of paper. 130 • Lesson 9: Figurative Language