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.

The first example of figurative language in the passage is the comparison of Melanie's stomach dropping to a free-falling elevator. This is a simile, as it compares two things using the word "like." It emphasizes the intensity of Melanie's anxiety by likening it to the sensation of a stomach dropping in an elevator. The second example is the comparison of the microphone to a straw in pink lemonade. This is also a simile, as it compares two things using the word "like." It suggests that Melanie is handling the microphone delicately and positioning it with care, just like one would handle a straw in a drink.