Read the passage excerpt below from a report on an agrarian crisis:
"When the rains failed for the third consecutive season, the cracked earth opened its dusty mouth to scream for relief. The village chief, viewing the completely withered cornfields, solemnly referred to the catastrophe as a temporary agricultural hiccup. Meanwhile, the sun acted as an unmerciful tyrant, beating down on the helpless community from dawn till dusk."
Match each numbered figurative expression on the left with its intended contextual meaning on the right.
- "the cracked earth opened its dusty mouth to scream for relief"Personification highlighting the extreme drought and the land's desperate need for rain
- "a temporary agricultural hiccup"Understatement downplaying the immense scale of the famine and crop failure
- "the sun acted as an unmerciful tyrant"Metaphor portraying the oppressive, relentless, and destructive intensity of the heat
Answer
"the cracked earth opened its dusty mouth to scream for relief" matches with "Personification highlighting the extreme drought and the land's desperate need for rain"; "a temporary agricultural hiccup" matches with "Understatement downplaying the immense scale of the famine and crop failure"; "the sun acted as an unmerciful tyrant" matches with "Metaphor portraying the oppressive, relentless, and destructive intensity of the heat".
Each figurative expression matches its corresponding stylistic device and contextual function: personification emphasizes the dry soil's condition, understatement minimizes the severity of the disaster, and metaphor conveys the oppressive heat of the sun.
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
Figurative Language and Figures of Speech in Context