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. (4 points)
One example of figurative language in the passage is the comparing of Melanie's stomach dropping to a free-falling elevator. This is a simile, as it uses the word "like" to make the comparison. It means that Melanie's stomach felt a sudden sense of fear or apprehension, similar to the feeling one might experience when riding in a rapidly descending elevator.
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, as it uses the word "like" to make the comparison. It means that Melanie positioned the microphone in the same way she would position a straw in a glass of pink lemonade, suggesting a sense of familiarity and comfort.