B. TASKS
1. Complete the following phrases and sentences with one word for each gap:
- He’s been avoiding me like … since our quarrel.
- She went as white as … when she heard the news.
- She arrives every day at five, regular as … .
- The new portable computers are going like … .
- He is dead, as sure as … .
- He was like … before his driving test.
- And there she was, as large as … .
- The children were as good as … when you were out.
- Her skin is still as smooth as … .
- The children are as busy as …, helping their mother in the garden.
2. Complete the similes below:
- as … as thieves
- as … as a mule
- as … as a hatter/a March hare
- as … as a lamb
- as … as dust
- as … as a lord
- as … as dirt
- as … as an owl
- as … as a horse/ox
- as … as chalk and cheese
- as … as a picture
- as … as ABC
- as … as sin
- as … as a bug in a rug
3. Find and explain examples of metaphorical use:
- Do tear yourself from the television and come out for a walk.
- International law is a minefield for anyone not familiar with its complexity.
- Pity melted her heart.
- Overnight trading caused share prices to zoom up.
- I tried to sell him my old car, but he wouldn’t bite.
- Their house was a great barracks of a place.
- The film has been minutely dissected by the critics.
- The prospects couldn’t be rosier.
- He gave me a frosty look.
- His sinister threat chilled all who heard it.
- He had to smother a giggle.
- His hopes evaporated.
- Violence is a cancer in our society.
- When I gave a chance, he grabbed it at once.
4. Sort the sentences below into two groups to indicate a positive or a negative meaning:
- The car is incredibly, heartstoppingly beautiful.
- My own life had been so respectable and sheltered in comparison.
- Louise was small but shapely in build.
- Don’t be so childish!
- It turned out to be the most ghastly place you can imagine.
- Tenerife was certainly a disastrous choice.
- There’s one really classy hotel, with a pool in a beautiful shady garden, and a decent restaurant.
- You never saw such a barren, boring landscape in your life, like the surface of the moon in a heatwave.
- Our wedding was a particularly gruesome, with the two sets of totally incompatible relatives grinding and grating against each other.
- Those terrible overalls would make anyone look slovenly.
- Take no notice of him – you know what a show-off he is.
- I swelled with the pride of possession.
5. Study the following examples and explain how the descriptions in them are made so vivid and exciting:
- The solution to the mystery burst inside my head like a flare.
- I felt like a sponge that had been saturated and squeezed so often it had lost its spring.
- He took it as a slap in the face.
- They received him with open arms as if he was a long-lost son.
- They hadn’t given me a chance to say a word all this time – I was just looking from one to the other like a spectator at Wimbledon.
- Maureen was always brimming over with news, gossip, anecdotes, whenever we met.
- That was a possibility as remote as flying to the moon.
- I feel self-esteem leaking out of me like water from an old bucket.
- I sense a storm of depression flickering on the horizon, and a tidal wave of despair gathering itself to swamp me.
- The pen is like a tool, a cutting or digging tool, slicing down to the roots, probing the rockbed of memory.
- When I finished the course, my obsession returned like a rabid Rottweiler freed from the leash.
6. Read the advertisements and explain the use of pun:
- When you decide to give her a ring, give us a ring. (Advertisement for a jeweller’s shop)
- For a few pounds you may lose a few. (Advertisement for a slimming course)
- Go up in the world. (Advertisement to recruit air stewards and stewardesses)
- We’ll give you sound advice. (Hi-fi shop advertisement)
- Your views are reflected in the Mirror. (Advertisement for The Mirror newspaper)
- Money matters. (Title of the financial section of a newspaper)
- It’s good for you, naturally. (Advertisement for fruit juice)
- Sea for yourself. (Advertisement to attract recruits to the Royal Navy)
- Christmas is a time to think of family ties. Buy ours. (Advertisement for men’s ties)
- The weather-men can’t guarantee you an Indian summer, but we can. (Travel agency advertisement)
7. Complete the jokes with puns:
Present, fork, fine, pretty ugly, change, poor
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a. – Have you noticed any … in me?
– No! Why?
– I’ve just swallowed a coin accidentally.
b. – Some girls think I’m handsome and some girls think that I’m horrible. What do you think, Mary?
– A bit of both, … .
c. – You have to be rich to play golf.
– Then why are there so many … players?
d. – I think we’ve just had a puncture.
– How did it happen?
– There was a … in the road.
e. – Well, son, how was your first day at the new school?
– Great! The teacher is going to give me a gift.
– How do you know that?
– Well, when I arrived, she pointed to a chair in the corner and said, Sit over there for the … .
f. – Why did you park your car here when it’s forbidden?
– But the sign says, … FOR PARKING!
Date: 2014-12-28; view: 1837
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