1. For Close Reading Exam Purposes

2. If the question mentions imagery you are being asked to discuss one of the following: Simile Metaphor Personification Symbolism Metonymy (although not often seen)

3. A comparison with like or as The messenger ran like the wind No marks for finding and identifying a simile. You must say how effective it is in its position. Not enough to say: the messenger ran very fast. Must say something like: This simile gives the impression of speed since the wind is seen as a powerful force capable of great speed. It might also suggest the runner was going so fast he was creating a disturbance like the wind. In other words, we are back to connotations again!!!

4. The poppies were as red as blood. This is effective because it gives not just the intensity of the red colour but suggests density and perhaps even shininess which helps you picture the richness of the poppies. Blood also suggests that human life may have been spilled to give them that colour.

5. Too many tourists are so wedded to their camera that they cease to respond directly to the beauty of the places they visit. They are content to take home a dozen rolls of exposed film instead, like a bank of Monopoly money. Show how the simile here highlights the writers disapproval of the behaviour of the tourists. The tourists are taking so many rolls home that they have a plentiful store of them, just as a bank has a plentiful store of money but this money just like Monopoly money, although it may look like the real thing, has no real value. The writer clearly disapproves of this substitution of something worthless for real appreciation of what they have seen.

6. She was particularly shocked by one headline A DOOR WE CANT CLOSE. She said, It makes me feel like vermin. Show how the simile here lets us know how strongly she felt. She feels like a rat or mouse which are detested and despised by most people, as being the lowest form of life. They are avoided for often being disease-carrying and a menace to society.

7. Like a simile it is also a comparison. But it does not say something is LIKE or AS something else: it says something IS something else. Good metaphors allow a lot of information to be transferred to the reader economically. Too many tourists are so wedded to their camera that they cease to respond directly to the beauty of the places they visit. They are content to take home a dozen rolls of exposed film instead, like a bank of Monopoly money. Show how the metaphor highlights the writers disapproval of the tourists.

8. To acquire marks here, you need to 1) Identify metaphor (but 0 for that alone) 2) Show what the connotations suggest about the matter under discussion 3) Show the link between the connotations you have discussed and the LITERAL meaning of the words. So 1) wedded is the metaphor because there is no TRUE marriage. 2) The connotation here is of the being so close to his camera that he can never be separated from it. But it is a negative view of marriage since it suggests that there is no freedom for independent action.

9. The UK is not a group of nations swamped by a tidal wave of immigration. Relatively speaking, Europe contends with a trickle of refugees compared with countries who border areas of famine, desperate poverty, or violent political upheaval. What is the impact of the imagery in these lines in making clear the writers point?

10. 1) swamped by a tidal wave. A trickle of refugees. 2) Connotations? 3) swamped/tidal wave: mass of unstoppable water running onto and destroying the land, as well as overwhelming the people.. 4) Link to meaning here? 5) Just as this form water invasion would damage the country, so too would this influx of people overwhelm the native population.

11. trickle suggests a feeble flow of water that makes little impression on the landscape. Just as a trickle is almost unnoticeable, so too is the number of refugees that come into the UK