AP English Language · Lesson 3

Figurative language

Know Know it

Figurative language means more than its literal words. In nonfiction it is an argument tool: a comparison tells readers how to feel about a subject and which of its features matter.

A metaphor describes one thing as another; a simile makes the comparison with like or as. Ask what the two things share. Calling a hidden fee “a leak in every family’s bucket” stresses slow, unnoticed loss, not a sudden blow.

An extended metaphor carries one comparison through several sentences, so each new detail extends the argument. Personification gives human traits to things (the law shrugged). Hyperbole exaggerates for emphasis; understatement shrinks something on purpose, often for dry humor or restraint. Verbal irony says something other than what is meant.

Trap Say what the comparison suggests

Calling something “a metaphor” is never the whole answer. The right choice says what the comparison suggests about the real subject.

A literal statement is not a figure. “The river flooded the town” is plain fact; “The river swallowed the town” is personification.

Worked example Easy

A fictional senator says the new budget is “a ladder with the bottom three rungs sawed off.” What does the metaphor mainly suggest?

  1. It helps people already partway up but not those starting at the bottomAnswer
  2. It is so badly built that it will collapse within a few short years
  3. It spends far too much public money on new construction projects
  4. It is too long and complicated for most of the town’s voters to read and understand

How to solve it

  1. Ask what the two things share: a ladder lets people climb.
  2. Missing bottom rungs mean those at the bottom cannot start, while those above keep climbing.

Why each choice is right or wrong

  • A. Correct. A ladder is for climbing; without its lowest rungs, people on the ground can’t start, while those already above can keep going.
  • B. Incorrect. A ladder missing low rungs still stands; the image is about who can climb, not about collapse.
  • C. Incorrect. The ladder is figurative, so it says nothing literal about building projects.
  • D. Incorrect. The image is about access to climbing, not about length or difficulty of reading.

Explain Explain it

Task verbs: explain, analyze

To explain a figure, unpack it in two steps: what the literal image is, and what that image says about the real subject. Then connect it to the purpose: why would this audience be moved by this image?

Worked example Hard

The following is from an original graduation speech, written for Peakscor practice; the speaker is fictional.

You have spent four years learning to read the map. Tomorrow you will discover that the map is old, that whole roads have washed out and new ones have been cut through places it shows as forest. Do not throw the map away. Fold it into your pocket, and trust it for the direction of north, if not for every turn.

In the passage, the speaker uses the map mainly to suggest that the graduates’ education

  1. has prepared them completely for any change they will meet in their working lives
  2. won’t fit every situation they meet but still gives them a sense of directionAnswer
  3. is now out of date and should be set aside as soon as they graduate
  4. taught them practical outdoor skills such as reading maps and finding north

How to solve it

  1. The map stands for what the graduates learned in school.
  2. Washed-out roads: the world has changed, so the map will not guide every turn.
  3. “Trust it for the direction of north”: it still gives general direction.

Why each choice is right or wrong

  • A. Incorrect. The map is described as “old,” with roads washed out, so it cannot prepare them for every change.
  • B. Correct. The map is “old” and some roads have “washed out,” yet the graduates should “trust it for the direction of north”: useful for general direction, not for every turn.
  • C. Incorrect. The speaker says the opposite: “Do not throw the map away.”
  • D. Incorrect. This reads the map literally; it stands for what they learned, not a lesson in navigation.

Explain Your turn

A fictional food critic writes that a new restaurant’s menu “reads like a novel with every chapter in a different language, and no translator in sight.” Explain what the comparison suggests about the menu and how it shapes the reader’s view of the restaurant.

Write it, then compare. Nothing you type here is saved or graded.

Compare with a model answer

A full answer does this

  • Explains that the comparison suggests the menu is confusing or lacks a unifying style
  • Says the comparison leads readers to view the restaurant critically

Model answer

A novel in a different language in every chapter, with no translator, cannot be read as one story, so the critic suggests the menu jumps between unrelated cuisines with nothing tying them together. The image makes readers see the restaurant as unfocused, trying to do too much, so they come away doubting it.

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