“A Sound of Thunder” Identifying Similes & Metaphors
Name___________________
A simile is a comparison between two unlike things using “like, “as,” “seems,” or “than.”
Example: Eckel’s experience with the T-Rex is like one long horror movie from which he cannot awaken.
A metaphor is a comparison between two unlike things but does not us “like, “a.” “seems,” or “than.”
Think of a metaphor as a mathematical statement, X = Y. The metaphor IS the comparison.
Example: The monster is a gigantic fire-breathing dragon poised to destroy them all!
Read the excerpts. Study each carefully and determine if each statement contains a simile or a
metaphor. Identify it by writing its term on the line provided.
________________ 1. “There was a sound like a gigantic bonfire burning all of Time…”
________________ 2. “Out of chars and ashes, out of dust and coals, like golden salamanders, the old years
…might leap.
________________ 3. “Time was a film run backwards.”
________________ 4. “Sounds like music and sounds like flying tents filled the sky…”
________________ 5. “Its armored flesh glittered like a thousand green coins.”
________________ 6. “The Monster twitched its jeweler’s hands down to fondle at the men, to twist them in
half, to crush them…”
.
________________ 7. “Like a stone idol, like a mountain avalanche, Tyrannosaurus Rex fell.”
________________ 8. “It was like standing by a wrecked locomotive or a steam shovel at quitting time, all
valves being released or levered tight.”
________________9. "Time doesn't permit that sort of mess-a man meeting himself. When such occasions
threaten, Time steps aside. Like an airplane hitting an air pocket.”
________________10. “The Monster lashed its armored tail, twitched its snake jaws, and lay still.”
________________11. “The Monster lay, a hill of solid flesh.”
________________12. “The jungle was alive again, full of the old tremorings and bird cries. Eckels turned
slowly to regard the primeval garbage dump, that hill of nightmares and terror.”
________________13. “After a long time, like a sleepwalker he shuffled out along the Path.”
________________14. “There was a sound of thunder.”