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Your guide: Miss RabiaReads every story twice: once for fun, once for the paper.
When you read a story aloud, why does it sound different from reading a news report? Pages 7–8 answer this with pronunciation, pitch and voice variation.
Pronunciation is the way a word or sound is spoken: the correct articulation of vowels and consonants, and the stress on syllables.
Pitch is the highness or lowness of a sound. In speech, pitch is the rise and fall of the voice, which can convey different emotions and meanings.
Voice variation is changing pitch, volume and rate of speech to express different emotions, meanings and emphasis.
Fiction invites character voices and dramatic pauses; nonfiction needs a more neutral, clear tone, with pitch variation for emphasis (pp. 7–8).
Simile: A comparison between two unlike things using “like” or “as”.
Example: He is as brave as a lion.
Metaphor: A direct comparison between two unlike things without using “like” or “as”.
Example: Time is a thief that steals our moments.
Personification: Giving human characteristics to non-human things.
Example: The wind whispered through the trees.
Hyperbole: An exaggeration used for emphasis or effect.
Example: I've told you a million times!
Onomatopoeia: A word that imitates a sound.
Example: The piece of meat sizzled on the pan.
Alliteration: The repetition of the same consonant beginning sound in a series of words.
Example: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
Idioms: A phrase with a meaning different from its literal words.
Example: It's raining cats and dogs.
Oxymoron: Two contradictory terms used together.
Example: Deafening silence filled the room.
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When you read a story aloud, why does it sound different from reading a news report? Pages 7–8 answer this with pronunciation, pitch and voice variation.
Pronunciation is the way a word or sound is spoken: the correct articulation of vowels and consonants, and the stress on syllables.
Pitch is the highness or lowness of a sound. In speech, pitch is the rise and fall of the voice, which can convey different emotions and meanings.
Voice variation is changing pitch, volume and rate of speech to express different emotions, meanings and emphasis.
Fiction invites character voices and dramatic pauses; nonfiction needs a more neutral, clear tone, with pitch variation for emphasis (pp. 7–8).
Simile: A comparison between two unlike things using “like” or “as”.
Example: He is as brave as a lion.
Metaphor: A direct comparison between two unlike things without using “like” or “as”.
Example: Time is a thief that steals our moments.
Personification: Giving human characteristics to non-human things.
Example: The wind whispered through the trees.
Hyperbole: An exaggeration used for emphasis or effect.
Example: I've told you a million times!
Onomatopoeia: A word that imitates a sound.
Example: The piece of meat sizzled on the pan.
Alliteration: The repetition of the same consonant beginning sound in a series of words.
Example: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
Idioms: A phrase with a meaning different from its literal words.
Example: It's raining cats and dogs.
Oxymoron: Two contradictory terms used together.
Example: Deafening silence filled the room.
A simile says “like” or “as”; a metaphor says something IS something else. That one word is the test.
Q1. Exercise B: name the figure in “The bitter sweetness of nostalgia crept over him”.
Oxymoron.
Q2. Exercise B: name the figures in “Crash!” and “silently slipping sideways”.
“Crash!” is onomatopoeia; “silently slipping sideways” is alliteration.
✗ Calling “his courage had turned to stone” a simile.
✓ There is no “like” or “as”: it is a metaphor.
✗ Reading “This storm is going to bury us alive!” as a literal statement.
✓ It is an exaggeration for effect: hyperbole.
✗ Taking “in over my head” to mean deep water.
✓ Its meaning differs from its literal words, so it is an idiom.
1. “The piece of meat sizzled on the pan” is an example of
(b) p. 8: a word that imitates a sound.
2. “Deafening silence filled the room” is an example of
(d) p. 8: two contradictory terms used together.
3. In speech, pitch is
(a) p. 7.
4. “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers” shows
(c) p. 8: the same consonant beginning sound repeated.
5. Which tone does the book suggest for reading nonfiction aloud?
(d) p. 7.
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