501 Critical Reading Questions

Critical Reading Questions

---

another to suggest a similarity between the two, this figure of
speech is called a 
metaphor
(choice 
e
). If the boy had instead said,
Nigel’s smile was “
like
a graveyard of yellow sincerity,” it would
have been a 
simile
, choice 
b
.
459.
a.
Both passages are basically concerned with a similar situation—
life aboard a cutter. The author of Passage 1 sets a pleasurable
tone in the first paragraph by describing the idyllic scene at Ply-
mouth and the anchored yacht. He later describes the yacht as
elegant
, 
tasteful
, and 
luxurious
(line 18), and the smell of the food
delightful
(lines 23–24). In stark contrast, the boy narrator in
Passage 2 begins the passage by describing the menacing façade
of his uncle and the immediate reality check the boy receives
when he steps aboard (lines 6–9). His description of the heat
and smell below deck (lines 20–22), and the horrible food (lines
33–35), effectively sets the dark and oppressive tone of the pas-
sage. Together, these two very different descriptions prove that
the 
reality of two seemingly similar situations can often be extremely
different
, choice