2.1 COMPARISONS
WARMING UP!
Expanding Word Webs
Form pairs. List the names of as many vehicles as you can. Choose any two of them, but they must be of different types. Then draw a word web for each of them to show their appearance, qualities and the things that these features remind you of. You may use words as well as phrases in the web.
|
Bicycle |
Slow Silver & Red Eco friendly Atlas/ Hero Small, Medium Triangular Affordable New/ old |
|
Car |
Huge Black/ White Tata/ Maruti Expensive Average Wheezing Fastest Luxurious |
Note the difference between drive and ride. Use the two words correctly in your own sentences.
Ans:
Drive: – Operate a car or other vehicle and control its movement and direction.
Ex. He drives in second gear.
Ride:- A trip on horseback or by vehicle.
Ex. She can’t ride a bicycle.
* Describe your dream vehicle in a few lines.
Ans: My dream car is the Ferrari. Ferrari has always been a symbol of speed and prestige and elegance. It has even been described as a ‘passion on wheels’. Owning a Ferrari means that you have arrived in style. But of course it is not easy. Only the very rich can even dream of owning a Ferrari. The Ferrari is the brainchild of Enzo Ferrari, an Italian who started his career as a small carmaker and soon took up car racing.
MARGIN QUESTIONS
1) What adjectives/ words are used to here to show – shape, size temperature?
Ans:
Shape- square,
round, crooked, straight
Size- big, small
Temperature- cool and warm
ENGLISH WORKSHOP
1. List all the adjectives in the poem. Use the comparative forms of at least 8 of them to write new comparisons. Two of them have been given as examples.
• Faster than the wind • Slower than a tortoise
* Bigger than an elephant * Smaller than an ant
* Gentle than a feather * Fiercer than the sun
* Rounder than a ball * wetter that the rain
* Cooler than ice * Shorter than a dwarf
2. List all the nouns in the poem. Find a suitable adjective – other than the ones given here – for each of the nouns and write meaningful similes for at least 8 of them.
For example, as yellow as a lemon.
Ans:
The nouns in the poem:-
spaceship, snail, dinosaur,
nail, tiger, lamb,
lemon, jam, desert,
sea, house, pea, cave,
toast, road drill, ghost, ox,
kitten, rock, mitten, tunnel,
moon, night time, midnight,
day time, noon, giant, elf,
mountain path, shelf, world, opposites
The adjectives in the poem:-
Round, slimy, extinct, rusted, majestic,
meek, juicy, thick, vast, deep, cosy, tasty,
gloomy, crisp, bulky, scary, strong, cuddly,
smooth, warm, long, right, quiet, dark, busy,
hot, kind, mischievous, scenic, wooden, ancient, stark
Meaningful Similes:
As huge as an ox
As hot as the afternoon
As scenic as a mountain path
As ancient as a dinosaur
As cute as a kitten
As tasty as jam
As dark as night
As bright as moon
3. Form groups of 6-8. Think of similes using different objects, for
example, • Dry as land • Wet as a puddle.
Ans: As straight as an arrow
As cool as an iceberg
Now try to put together the similes to make a poem with rhyming lines.
Ans:
As bleak as the sky when it’s cloudy and gray As rough as the sea on a windy day As tough as the skin on an elephant’s trunk As stinky as the smell of an angry skunk As dark as the sky on a starless night And it stings just as much as an animal’s bite
4. Write the pairs of rhyming words.
Ans: snail- nail lamb- jam
sea- pea toast- ghost
kitten- mitten moon- noon
midnight- giant self- elf
5. Start a collection of idioms with comparisons. Use the following categories.
(a) Idioms with colours:
as black as crow as white as milk
as red as blood as blue as the sky
as green as grass as pink as teddy bear
as yellow as turmeric as purple as jamboo
(b) Idioms with animals:
as cunning as a fox as lazy as donkey
as wise as an owl as honest as dog
(c) Idioms with objects:
as black as coal as sweet as candy
as sharp as a sword as heavy as stone
6. Given below are some idiomatic comparisons with ‘like’. Can you guess their meaning? Look them up in a good dictionary. You won’t find them under ‘like’. Which words will you look up to find these comparisons?
• Like a bull in a china shop
(Here, china means delicate articles of porcelain)
The idiom refers to clumsy or destructive behaviour in a
delicate situation which will lead to disaster.
• Like a cat on a hot tin roof.
like a cat on hot tin roof refers to someone who is in a worried or anxious state
*Like a red rag to a bull.
Red rag means something that makes someone react in anger or violently.
• Like a cat that stole the cream.
The cat refers to the person who is satisfied or very proud of herself.
• Like water off a duck’s back.
The water refers to the hurtful remarks or judgments people make about someone but it doesn’t affect the person or the person doesn’t care about that remark.
• Memory like a sieve.
Memory like a sieve refers to someone who has a very bad memory and tends to forget things very easily.
APPRECIATION
1. Title: The title of the poem is ‘Comparisons’
2. Poet/Author: The poem is written by an anonymous (unknown) poet.
3. Rhyme scheme: The rhyme scheme of the poem is ‘abcb’.
4. Figure of speech: The figure of speech in the poem is ‘Simile’, ‘Alliteration’
5. Theme / central idea: The world is full of opposites. The poet makes comparisons between two things which are sometimes very important in our life.