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“Similes” - matching exercise
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A simile is a comparison using “like” or “as.”

There are lots of these similes in English, some having the status of sayings or idioms. For example, you can be “happy as a clam.” (Perhaps you didn’t know that clams were happy. Well, neither did I. Nevertheless, the phrase means “very happy.”)

[Note: sometimes the first “as” is dropped: “..as busy as a beaver” can be “busy as a beaver.”]

Your job is to unscramble these similes. Match the first column with the correct noun/noun phrase in the second column.

Hint: Sometimes it is sound more than meaning that accounts for word choice in these colorful comparisons.

1. As hard as…………………… a cat in a room full of rocking chairs
2. As pretty as…………………. a daisy
3. As cool as……………………. a bat
4. As fit as ……………………… a cucumber
5. As drunk as …………………. a baby’s behind
6. As blind as ………………….. a porcupine in a balloon factory.
7. As bald as …………………… nails
8. As nervous as ………………. a skunk
9. As nervous as ………………. a fiddle (a fiddle is a violin)
10. As fresh as …………………. a picture

(ANSWERS BELOW)

MORE ACTIVITIES

A. Compare
What similar similes do learners have in their native language? Make a list. Translate them into English.

B. Write Your Own
Now ask learners to write their own similes using the following list as a starting point . . .

Scared as . . .
Polite as . . .
Drunk as . . .
Happy as
Nervous as . . .
Pretty as . . .

<> SIMILE ANSWERS

1. As hard as nails (very tough)
2. As pretty as a picture
3. As cool as a cucumber (calm under pressure)
4. As fit as a fiddle (healthy, full of energy)
5. As drunk as a skunk
6. As blind as a bat
7. As bald as a baby’s behind (like a baby’s buttocks)
8. As nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs
9. As nervous as a porcupine in a balloon factory.
10. As fresh as a daisy

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Conferences
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1. In Vladivostok, the huge, enormous, 5th PAN-ASIAN CONFERENCE ON LANGUAGE TEACHING at FEELTA, June 24-27, 2004 http://www.dvgu.ru/rus/partner/education/feelta/pac5/

2. TESOL-ELT in SAMARA, June 29-30: “New Vistas” conference
Contact: Yulia Markushina tel: (8462) 32 49 03 email: ioofs@samara.ru

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Thanks to Kamchatka Folks
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Thanks to everyone at the State Pedagogical University and the Academy of Foreign Trade in Petropavlosk.

Special thanks to Ziggy and Anton, who were great guides, and even greater guys.

Special thanks to the kids of the village of Atlasovo. You have no internet, so you won’t read be able to read this, but you really made me love you. (Plus, it was so nice to find people to play with who are my age.)

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In the Next Issue (around May 10, 2004)
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Possibly, a correction task. Or some new idioms. Or maybe I’ll just write nice things about Kamchatka.

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Copyright 2004 Kevin McCaughey & I.M. Poosheesty
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