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 is when the paragraph says Melanie's stomach "dropped like a free-falling elevator." This is a simile, comparing the feeling in her stomach to the sudden drop of an elevator. It helps to convey the sense of nervousness and fear she is experiencing.
Another example of figurative language is when the paragraph says Melanie bent the microphone toward her mouth "like the straw in her pink lemonade." This is a simile as well, comparing the movement of the microphone to the bending of a straw in a drink. It creates a visual image and emphasizes the delicacy and care with which Melanie handles the microphone.