showed no surprise at all) Now look back at example (c). Notice that the contradiction in fact serves to emphasise the value or usefulness of the rain to the farmer. Find sentences in the story with negative words, which express the following ideas emphatically. The trees lost all their leaves.
The letter was addressed to God himself. The postman saw this address for the first time in his career. Have you ever been in great difficulty, and felt that only a miracle could help you? How was your problem solved?
Speak about this in class with your teacher. Object Metaphor Quality or Feature Compared Cloud Huge mountains The mass or ‘hugeness’ of clouds of mountains Raindrops Hailstones Locusts An epidemic (a disease) that spreads very rapidly and leaves many people dead An ox of a man V. Metaphors The word metaphor comes from a Greek word meaning ‘transfer’. Metaphors compare two things or ideas: a quality or feature of one thing is transferred to another thing.
Some common metaphors are • the leg of the table: The leg supports our body. So the object that supports a table is described as a leg. • the heart of the city: The heart is an important organ in the centre of our body. So this word is used to describe the central area of a city.
In pairs, find metaphors from the story to complete the table below. Try to say what qualities are being compared. One has been done for you. W HAT W E H AVE D ONE • Introduced students to the story that they are going to read.
• Related a thought-provoking story about the nature of belief. • Helped students, through an interesting activity, to understand something that happens in the story — how to send money using a money order. • Guided them through the reading activity by providing periodic comprehension checks as they read, and checked for holistic understanding at the end of the reading activity. • Provided interesting exercises to strengthen students’ grasp of the specific vocabulary found in the story, and