Use the paragraph to complete the activity.
Melanie walked out onto the stage, and her stomach dropped like a free-falling elevator. She crept slowly over to the podium and bent the microphone toward her mouth, like the straw in her pink lemonade. She gathered up all of her courage and began to speak, her voice an impostor as it boomed through the microphone. She flinched at its unfamiliarity and scanned the room for her mother's face.
In three to five sentences, identify two examples of figurative language from the passage above and explain what each example of figurative language means.
One example of figurative language in the passage is the phrase "her stomach dropped like a free-falling elevator." This is a simile, comparing the feeling in Melanie's stomach to the sensation of an elevator dropping rapidly. It emphasizes how intense and sudden her feeling of nervousness is.
Another example of figurative language is when Melanie bent the microphone toward her mouth "like the straw in her pink lemonade." This is also a simile, comparing the way Melanie adjusts the microphone to how she adjusts a straw in her drink. It helps paint a picture of her delicate and careful movements, highlighting her nervousness and apprehension.