Health
Senior 2 · English
Health
Lesson 4 of 4
20 min
"I had a fever" gives a fact. "My body was a furnace" makes the reader feel the heat. Good writers use comparisons to turn feelings that are hard to describe, such as pain, weakness and relief, into pictures we recognise. Examiners regularly ask you to identify a simile or a metaphor and explain its effect, and using them well makes your own compositions stand out.
This is an original passage by Ganzaa. Ishimwe, an S2 student, is the narrator. As you read, underline every comparison.
On Monday evening my head began to pound like a drum at a wedding. By midnight my body was a furnace, yet I shivered as if I were standing in the hail on Mount Karisimbi. My blanket felt as heavy as a sack of potatoes, and every sound in the house (a cup on the table, my sister's radio) was a hammer on my skull.
My mother put her hand on my forehead. It was a cool river stone. She did not waste a single word. Within ten minutes we were on a moto to the health centre.
The nurse moved as quickly as a sunbird between the patients, and her calm voice was a lamp in a dark room. She pricked my finger, waited, and nodded. Malaria. She counted the tablets into my hand like a trader counting coins, and she made me promise to finish every one.
For two days I was a phone with a dead battery. On the third morning, I woke up and the world had its colours back. I felt like a phone that has been charged all night. My appetite returned like a hungry goat to a field of sweet-potato leaves, and I ate three plates of beans.
Now, every night, I tuck the mosquito net under my mattress. That thin white net is my shield.
What were Ishimwe's symptoms on Monday night?
A pounding headache, a high fever, shivering, weakness (the blanket felt heavy) and sensitivity to noise.
How do we know Ishimwe felt better on the third day?
The world "had its colours back", he felt "charged", and his appetite returned: he ate three plates of beans.
What lesson has Ishimwe learned?
To sleep under a mosquito net every night to protect himself from malaria.
A simile compares two different things using like, as ... as or as if.
A metaphor says that one thing is another, with no like or as. It is a stronger, more direct comparison.
Take the metaphor my body was a furnace. Answer four questions:
Watch the trap: not every sentence with like is a simile. I like beans compares nothing. A simile must compare two different kinds of thing.
Worked example. Improve: She walked like she was a queen. → She walked as if she were a queen. (clause after as if) or She walked like a queen. (noun after like).
Vocabulary from the passage: pound (beat hard and repeatedly), furnace (a very hot oven), skull (the bone of the head), appetite (the wish to eat), shield (something that protects).
Write a paragraph of 80–100 words describing either a day you were ill and began to recover or a day you felt full of energy after exercise. Include at least two similes and two metaphors, and underline them.
Model answer
After the football match, my legs were two tired snakes, but inside I felt as light as a feather. The sun was a golden coin sinking behind Mount Kigali, and the cool breeze moved over my face like water from a spring. My friends were laughing and singing, and their voices were drums that kept my heart dancing all the way home. I drank two cups of water and slept like a stone.
Why this works: each comparison is fresh and fits a real feeling. The writer mixes similes (as light as a feather, like water) and metaphors (legs were two tired snakes, the sun was a golden coin).
Tip
Simile = Similar: it tells you two things are similar, using like or as.
Metaphor = "is": it says one thing is the other.
For full marks, always explain the shared quality and the effect, not just the name of the device.
Simile or metaphor? The classroom was an oven in the afternoon sun.
Solution: Metaphor. It says the classroom was an oven, with no like or as. Shared quality: great heat.
Simile or metaphor? His cough sounded like a broken engine.
Solution: Simile, because it uses like. Shared quality: a harsh, rough, repeated noise.
Change the simile into a metaphor: The nurse's smile was like sunshine.
Solution: The nurse's smile was sunshine. (Remove like.)
Complete with the correct form: He looked as if he ___ (be) about to faint.
Solution: were. In formal English, an imaginary comparison after as if uses were. (Was is common in informal speech.)
Explain the metaphor that thin white net is my shield.
Solution: The net is compared to a shield. Both protect the owner from attack; the net protects Ishimwe from mosquito bites. The effect is to show how important and powerful a simple net is.
Remember
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