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Interpreting Figurative Language| I-1
Taylor Associates
Interpreting Word Meaning: Figurative Language
COMPREHENSION SKILLS PR
There
are many different ways of saying “car” when using figurative language.
For example, figuratively speaking, a car could be “wheels,” or it could be your “dream
machine.” If you are not so lucky, it might even be “a lemon” or “a bomb.”
When applied to a car, all these terms are examples of figurative language. Figurative
language is language made up of figures of speech. Figures of speech are simply
words or combinations of words used to mean something different from what they
usually mean.
For example, figurative language is used to describe singer Janis Joplin as a “little-girllost adrift in the world.” The author does not intend these words to mean what they
appear to mean at first. Obviously, Janis was neither a little girl, nor had she lost her
way in the world. Figuratively speaking, she was a little girl. She did not have the
maturity and self-confidence women her age ordinarily have. In addition, she was “lost”
in the sense that she did not have constructive goals and direction in her life.
Another example of figurative language is the statement:
Janis went on for as long as the private life and body behind the giant
puppet could hold out.
When the author talks about Janis as though she were a giant puppet, he means that
Janis was a puppet in the figurative sense. She did what other people wanted her to
do, acted the way they expected, and let herself be manipulated by them.
Figurative language is not limited to terms or labels. It can also describe kinds of
activity or behavior.
For example, read how the author describes Janis’ funeral:
The only person crying was a reporter from a straight daily, and he was
asked to leave because he was “bringing everybody down.”
Here, “bringing everybody down” is an example of figurative language. It does not
mean that the reporter was making people bend or sit down. It means that the reporter
was lowering their spirits, making them sad.
A good way to recognize figurative language is to read the words with the meaning they
usually have. If they do not make sense, look at them again, and try to determine the
figurative meaning the author has given them.
For instance, when the author describes Janis as “just one more we’ve seen fall in the
public arena of the pop marketplace,” you might ask, “How did Janis fall?” and “Where
is this public arena?” These are logical questions if you read the words to mean what
they usually mean. When you read them as a figure of speech they mean something
different. Janis “fell” in the sense that her career and, in her case, her life ended. The
“public arena” is the stage where she performed. The “pop marketplace” is the highly
commercial music industry in which the competition was fierce and inhuman.
Copyright © 2013 Taylor Associates/Communications,
Inc.
E
Level I-1
Use
of Plus
Language
Reading
®
Interpreting Figurative Language| I-1
Taylor Associates
Interpreting Word Meaning: Figurative Language
COMPREHENSION SKILLS PR
E
Level I-1
Student Name_______________________________________________________________
In the following exercises there are examples of figurative language. Complete the exercises by filling in
each blank with the correct word(s) and circling the correct response in each multiple-choice question.
1. Bishop’s Rock Lighthouse was a flashing arc on the starboard quarter when I took over Marvale’s
bridge at 4 a.m. for my first watch.
In this statement, Bishop’s Rock Lighthouse is figuratively described as ________________ .
This figure of speech refers to
a. the color of the signal light given off by the lighthouse.
b. how the speaker perceives the lighthouse in the dark.
c. the steady accuracy of the lighthouse signal.
d. how the lighthouse signal can be seen and heard.
2. Bower’s tale was a fantastic one, and I could not quite swallow it!
Here the figure of speech consists of one word: ______________________________. In which
sense is it used?
a. physical
b. mental
3. The Occidental Province should stand alone. The early Federalism was not bad for us. Then
came this union which Don Henrique Gould resisted. It opened the road to tyranny and, ever
since, the rest of Costaguana hangs like a millstone round our necks.
The figure of speech used above is: ____________________________________________.
Here the figure of speech means
a. a punishment.
b. a great weight.
c. a hindrance to the Province’s independence.
d. a beneficial situation for the Province.
4. A wounded tiger was now lurking about, and the beat had come to a halt. My friend, Firoze,
came rushing toward us on his great tusker and could not have been more than 75 feet away
when a furious roar shattered the momentary hush, and a yellow streak shot up from the edge
of the grass before the racing elephant. The tusker had come to an abrupt halt. An enormous
tiger was clinging to its head!
In the paragraph above, the figure of speech, “the beat had come to a halt,” is used to refer to
a. a tiger in motion.
b. a startled elephant.
c. the silence in the jungle.
d. the hunters’ apprehension.
Copyright © 2013 Taylor Associates/Communications,
Inc.