Comprehension:
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:-
When Tao Ying rides on the bus alone, quite often she does not bother to buy a ticket.
Why should she? Without her, the bus would still be stopping at every stop, a driver and a conductor would still have to be employed, and the same amount of petrol used.
Clearly Tao Ying has to be astute. When the bus conductor looked like the responsible type, she would buy a ticket as soon as she got on board. But if he appeared to be casual and careless, she would not dream of paying, considering it a small punishment for him and a little saving for herself.
Tao Ying works as a cook in the canteen of a factory. She spends all day next to an open fire, baking screw-shaped wheat cakes with sesame butter.
Today she is with her son Xiao Ye. She follows him onto the bus. As the doors shut her jacket is caught, ballooning up like a tent behind her. She twists this way and that, finally wrenching herself free.
‘Mama, tickets?’ Xiao Ye says. Children are often more conscious of rituals than adults. Without a ticket in his hand, the ride doesn’t count as a proper ride.
On the peeling paint of the door somebody has painted the shape of a pale finger. It points at a number: 1.10 m.
Xiao Ye pushed through. His hair looks as fluffy as a bundle of straw-dry and without lustre. As a rule, Tao Ying is very careful with her purse, but she has never skimped on her child’s diet. Nonetheless, the goodness in his food refuses to advance beyond his hairline. As a result, Xiao Ye is healthy and clever, but his hair is a mess.
The poetic device used in the line 'his hair looks as fluffy as a bundle of straw' is:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → simile
Simile:
- A simile openly compares two different things, using "like" or "as".
- The two things stay separate; one is said to be like the other in some quality.
- In the line, Xiao Ye's hair is compared to a bundle of straw with "as fluffy as": both are dry, light and untidy.
Example: The baby's skin was as soft as silk.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: metaphor — Incorrect. A metaphor says that one thing is another, without "like" or "as"; the line uses "as ... as".
Example: Time is a thief.
Option 2: irony — Incorrect. Irony is a contrast between what is said or expected and what is meant or happens; the line has no such contrast.
Example: The fire station burned down last night.
Option 3: personification — Incorrect. Personification gives human qualities to non-human things; the hair and the straw are given no human quality.
Example: The wind whispered through the trees.