Read the passage below from the story of Pecos Bill (1966); then answer the questions that follow.
What Bill planned to do was leap from his horse and grab the cyclone by the neck. But as he came near and saw how high the top of the whirling tower was, he knew he would have to do something better than that. Just as he . . . came close enough to the cyclone to feel its hot breath, a knife of lightning streaked down into the ground. It struck there, quivering, just long enough for Bill to reach out and grab it. As the lightning bolt whipped back up into the sky, Bill held on. When he was as high as the top of the cyclone, he jumped and landed astraddle its black, spinning shoulders.
By then, everyone in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Oklahoma was watching. They saw Bill grab hold of that cyclone's shoulders and haul them back. They saw him wrap his legs around the cyclone's belly and squeeze so hard the cyclone started to pant. Then Bill got out his lasso and slung it around the cyclone's neck. He pulled it tighter and tighter until the cyclone started to choke, spitting out rocks and dust. All the rain that was mixed up in it started to fall.
These paragraphs include examples of which of the following literary devices?
  1. Simile
  2. Alliteration
  3. Hyperbole
  4. Metaphor
Explanation
Correct Response: C. Hyperbole (C) is a figure of speech in which emphasis, exaggeration, or overstatement is employed. This passage, like most tall tales, relies heavily on hyperbole (e.g., "They saw him wrap his legs around the cyclone's belly and squeeze so hard the cyclone started to pant"). The passage contains no strong examples of simile (A), alliteration (B), or metaphor (D).
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