Стилистика 6_unit2_Tropes

Tropes Based on the Interaction

of Different Types of Lexical Meaning

Exercise 2.1. Read the following fragments, analyze the cases of metaphor from the units in bold type and state their type. Speak about the effect produced by the given tropes:

1. And in the park, for one terrible moment, she had thought that his fragile shell of sanity would crack and spill the yolk of madness. /Dean Koontz Cold Fire/ 2. He began to wolf down large pieces of bread. . /J.K. Rowling Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire/ 3. I was damaged goods. […] I found my office and slumped into the leather swivel, exhausted. /John Grisham The Street Lawyer/ 4. Brian looked at his hands, which were caked with mud. /Stephen King Needful Things/ 5. His eyes, blue Anglo-Saxon ice under the bushy white whorls of his eyebrows. /Stephen King The Breathing Method from Different Seasons/ 6. Mr. Malfoy went even paler than usual, but his eyes were still slits of fury. /J.K. Rowling Harry Porter & The Chamber of Secrets/ 7. Movement caught his eye. A man was walking toward him from the direction of the public beach. The heels of his rubber beach things flopped loosely and flicked up rooster tails of sand with each step. Carver expected him to walk past. He sat listening to the whisper of footfalls in sand as the man trudged behind him. /John Lutz Blood Fire/ 8. The purple cloth of twilight slid across the world outside, and the undraped form of night began to reveal itself. /Dean Koontz Cold Fire/ 9. His anger metastasized into something beyond mere rage, far beyond wrath. /Dean Koontz Cold Fire/ 10. I saw all of this in the nothingness of his eyes. /Stephen King The Breathing Method from Different Seasons/

Exercise 2.2. Pick out the cases of metaphor from the fragments below and state their type. Speak about the effect produced by the given tropes:

1. Susan, of course, was a source of more than a little stress. Love was a sacred garment, woven of a fabric so thin that it could not be seen, yet so strong, a garment that could not be frayed by use, that brought warmth into what would otherwise be an intolerably cold world. /Dean Koontz False Memory/ 2. George tossed a fresh log onto the fire. Sparks corkscrewed up the black throat of the chimney. /Stephen King The Breathing Method from Different Seasons/ 3. Low over the towering mountains, the sky appeared to be nine months gone, bulging with gray-black storm clouds that were about to deliver torrents of fine dry snow. /Dean Koontz The Key to Midnight/ 4. He was sure he couldn’t be seen, but the tips of his beat-up shoes, pointing outward, screamed their presence. /M.H. Clark Double Vision/ 5. I always liked walking late at night. In a comfortable city like Edgerton, the enormous blanket of darkness cushions even the sound of your footsteps on the pavement. /Peter Straub Mr. X/ 6. Your concern for her is the rock on which she stands. /Dean Koontz False Memory/ 7. Miss Waterhouse asked for volunteers to look after the new boys and girls. A forest of hands shot up, and the teacher chose the chaperones. /Tony Parsons Man and Boy/ 8. Valet was a love sponge, not a serious watchdog. /Dean Koontz False Memory/ 9. Overhead storage compartment popped open. Train-cases, valises, jackets, and personal items flew out and rained down on the seats. /Dean Koontz Cold Fire/ 10. The bright blue of the sky dimmed as the day drained out of it. /Stephen King Riding the Bullet/

Exercise 2.3. Analyse cases of personification. Speak about the effect they produce:

1. Beyond the window, in the rapidly deepening twilight, the great city began to put on dazzling ornamental kimonos of neon. /Dean Koontz The Key to Midnight/ 2. Lots of books about Japan. Gina’s things, and they chewed up my heart every time I saw them. /Tony Parsons Man and Boy/ 3. Louis unshoulded Gage and pulled him out of the baby carrier so he could crawl. Louis’s back sighed with relief. /Stephen King Pet Sematary/ 4. They had been on the road only half an hour when lightning shattered the bleak sky and danced on jagged legs across the somber desert horizon. /Dean Koontz Cold Fire/ 5. Twilight pressed its purple face to the window. /Dean Koontz Cold Fire/ 6. Outside, a wolfish wind growled, scratched on the windows, and raised mournful howls to the eaves. /Dean Koontz False Memory/ 7. By seven o’clock, the two tables were groaning under dishes and dishes of Mrs. Weasley’s excellent cooking, and the nine Weasleys, Harry and Hermione were setting themselves down to eat beneath a clear, deep-blue sky. /J.K. Rowling Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire/ 8. Money talked, although she wasn’t entirely sure she liked what it said. /Wendy Holden Simply Divine/ 9. So the kite was pulled back in, fighting for the sky at every turn of the twine, at last surrendering. /Stephen King Pet Sematary/ 10. The grumbling sea tried to shoulder its way out of the deeps and claim the continent, while the wind-coaxed beach spread its sandy fingers across the promenade, stealing the pavement. /Dean Koontz False Memory/

Exercise 2.4. Read the following fragments, analyze the cases of metonymy from the units in bold type and state the type of association in them. Speak about the effect produced by the given tropes:

1. A nervous chatter rose quietly outside the courtroom. The dark suits from the first group became still and watched the potential jurors. / John Grisham Runaway Jury/ 2. In general, though, I had an aversion to robes and regalia of any kind, especially when they were to do with the Church. /James Herbert Others/ 3. I recognized him from the Polaroid you gave me. /James Herbert Others/ 4. While traffic moved faster than in New York City, the pulse was slower, with more consideration toward strangers. /Phyllis A. Whitney The Singing Stones/ 5. Dusty and Martie could hear the sirens in the distance. They cleared the driveway, turned south on the highway, and went more than a mile before they saw the first black-and-white racing toward the Lampton house. /Dean Koontz False Memory/ 6. At least they paid bed and board for the contestants, plus some money for travel. /Judi James Supermodel/ 7. I was the enemy. I was trouble and the powers above had forbidden them to talk to me. /John Grisham The Street Lawyer/

Exercise 2.5. Point out cases of metonymy, state the type of association they are based on and say what effect is produced:

1. It was a terrible time for me to leave, but I didn’t care. The firm had eight hundred lawyers. They would find the bodies they needed. /John Grisham The Street Lawyer/ 2. To keep the upper hand, she then mentioned her meeting with her new divorce lawyer, then relaying for my benefit the self-serving opinions her mouthpiece had delivered. /John Grisham The Street Lawyer/ 3. The last thing I saw on the outside was Madam Devier shaking at her desk, terror-stricken, headset around her neck, high heels parked neatly next to her waste basket. /John Grisham Street Lawyer/ 4. There were murmurs of revolt among the great unwashed and uninvited. /Judi James Supermodel/ 5. “Excuse me, miss, might I ask for a smoke?.. I’ll pay.” “Chil’, coffin nails cost two-fifty a pack in this city, an’ what planet do you come from?” Dave handed her a five. /Joseph R. Garber Vertical Run/ 6. The attack on the embassy might proceed with no warning. Dozens would be killed and maimed. A crater in the city would smolder for days, and in Washington fingers would point and accusations would fly. The CIA would be blamed again. /John Grisham The Brethren/ 7. Another uniform came out with Nurse Anna. Her tight face was glossy with sweat. /Jonathan Kellerman The Clinic/

Exercise 2.6. Analyse the cases of irony and sarcasm in the fragments below and say what gives them the ironic ring:

1. “This’ll be my year,” she said out loud, addressing her husband, Clive Sr., who sat on the television, smiling at her wisely. Dead now for twenty years, Clive Sr. could boast an even temperament. From his vantage point behind glass, nothing much got to him, and if he worried that this might be his wife’s winter, he didn’t show it. /Richard Russo Nobody’s Fool/ 2. Edward had been sent to the Assassins’ Guild because they had the best school for those whose social rank is higher than their intelligence. /Terry Pratchett Men at Arms/ 3. Another assistant ventured forth with a platter of leftover shrimp and oysters, but Fitch waved him off. There was a rumor that he sometimes ate, but he’d never been caught in the process. /John Grisham Runaway Jury/ 4. Madame Devier was standing behind her desk, petrified, staring into the barrel of an awfully long handgun held by the street bum. Since I was the first one to come to her aid, he politely aimed it at me, and I, too, became rigid. /John Grisham Street Lawyer/ 5. The two were becoming friends of a sort. She was divorced for the second time, and Jerry was about to be divorced for the first. /John Grisham Runaway Jury/

Exercise 2.7. Analyse the effect produced by the cases of zeugma below:

1. Harry, Ron and Neville got into their pajamas and into bed. /J.K. Rowling Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire/ 2. We were surrounded by houses and people, but you had to walk for half a mile before you could buy a newspaper. /Tony Parsons Man and Boy/ 3. We drank colas on a bench in the bustling lobby of the building, saying nothing as we watched a million lawyers scurry the halls, chasing clients and justice. /John Grisham The Street Lawyer/ 4. I was sitting next to Carl Whiteside, who had bad breath and a huge collection of marbles. /Charles Baxter Gryphon/ 5. Tall, blond, shaggy-haired, blue-eyed, he was dressed only in muscles and a pair of black spandex cyclist’s shorts. /Dean Koontz Cold Fire/ 6. Across from her were what looked to be a mother and daughter: both blond, with black roots, pouchy eyes, sunken body and spirit. /Joseph Kellerman The Clinic/ 7. The movie was good. And we walked through the narrow streets of Soho hand and hand, laughing about Alvy Singer and his Annie Hall, lost in the film and each other, just like it was in our once upon a time. /Tony Parsons Man and Wife/ 8. We’d left Vermont at seven forty-five and, stopping twice for coffee, gas and kisses, reached her baroque apartment fortress by eleven-thirty. /Eric Segal Oliver’s Story/

Exercise 2.8. Point out cases of zeugma and speak about the produced effect:

1. Polly arrived a few minutes before eight with a big smile and a plate of homemade cookies. /John Grisham The Street Lawyer/ 2. She took herself and the pictures off with a swish of saffron skirts. /Phyllis A. Whitney The Singing Stones/ 3. After Lully came a Monteverdi and the best pastrami I had ever tasted. /Eric Segal Oliver’s Story/ 4. That brought her schoolgirl ache and all those cigarettes. /J. Updike Couples/ 5. The humour wasn’t working at that hour. Neither was his heater, though the fan was blowing at full speed. /John Grisham The Street Lawyer/ 6. There, on the threshold of her bedroom door, stood Miss Rachel, almost as white in the face as the white dressing-gown that clothed her. There also stood the two doors of the Indian cabinet, wide open. /Wilkie Collins The Moonstone/ 7. Father drove us back in Mother’s station wagon. And in pregnant silence. /Eric Segal Oliver’s Story/ 8. I turn round and have just enough time to watch the fist coming towards me but not enough time to get out of its way. A pale thin boy in cheap clothes is facing me, blood on his fist and something like hatred on his face. /Tony Parsons One for my Baby/

Exercise 2.9. Analyse the cases of pun in bold type and say what this play of words is based on:

1. Mr. Key’s wife was departing from her house and left a note at the door for her milkman. It stated: “Gone. Don’t leave anything.” When she returned home, she discovered her house had been entered and burglarized. On the table she found a note which said: “Thanks! We haven’t left much.”

2. “What are you reading?” asked the prison librarian.

“Nothing much,” replied the prisoner. “Just the usual escape literature.”

3. Pessimist: “Marriage is a three-ring circus… Engagement ring, wedding ring and suffering.”

4. Mother: “Jimmy, run over and see how old Mrs. Smith is this morning.”

Jimmy (returning): “She said to tell you it was none of your business.”

Mother: “Why, Jimmy, what in the world did you ask her?”

Jimmy: “Just what you told me. I said you wanted to know how old she was.”

5. Proud father: “Yes, sir, our household represents the whole United Kingdom. I am English, my wife’s Irish, the nurse represents Scotland, and the baby wails.”

6. Buzz: “Why did dracula lose the baseball game?”

Cuz: “Why?”

Buzz: “Because his bat flew away.”

Exercise 2.10. Point out cases of pun, say what this play of words is based on and speak about the effect produced:

1. She: “I remember the time when you were just crazy to marry me.”

He: “So do I, but I didn’t realize it at that time.”

2. Customer: “Waiter, bring me a ham sandwich.”

Waiter: “With pleasure.”

Customer: “Nope, with mustard.”

3. Diner: “Have you any wild duck?”

Waiter: “No, sir, but we can take a tame one and irritate it for you.”

4. “Why did they hang that picture?”

“Perhaps because they couldn’t find the artist.”

5. Caller: “I wonder if I can see your mother, little boy. Is she engaged?”

Willie: “Engaged?! She’s married!”

6. When a guest at a Hollywood wedding was asked what he was giving the couple, he replied: “I’ll give them about three months.”

Exercise 2.11. Read the following fragments, analyze the cases of the epithet from the units in bold type and state their type. Speak about the effect produced by the given tropes:

1. “Forget it,” said Tally, flashing her a hurt, how-could-you-mention-that-now glance. /Wendy Holden Simply Divine/ 2. Martie put her hand over her friend’s, and together they pulled the door inward, admitting cold gray light and a sharp-toothed wind. /Dean Koontz False Memory/ 3. A white Honda bumped the bike, and the cyclist went down in a skidding-rolling-bouncing tangle of skinned legs, bent bicycle wheels, broken arms, and twisted handlebars. /Dean Koontz The Key to Midnight/ 4. “Ah,” said Aunt Marge, smacking her lips and putting the empty brandy glass down. “Excellent nosh, Petunia. It’s normally just a fry-up for me of an evening, with twelve dogs to look after…” She burped richly and patted her great tweed stomach. /J. Rowling Harry Porter & The Prisoner of Azkaban/ 5. Cora’s face is baleful with hate and witchy with envy. /Stephen King Needful Things/ 6. There was a definite end-of-the-holidays gloom in the air when Harry awoke next morning. /J.K. Rowling Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire/ 7. Tally had a brother. What a nightmare. Was the brother here? Spying on him? Concealed somewhere in the vast, rotting warren of a house? /Wendy Holden Simply Divine/ 8. The baby was grabbing frantically at his neck, screaming wildly. Louis flipped him over and saw an angry knob rising on the side of Gage’s neck. /Stephen King Pet Sematary/ 9. In a let’s-calm-down-and-be-reasonable tone of voice that drove her mad, he said, “Whatever causes poltergeist phenomena can lift and hurl animate objects – but not living animals.” /Dean Koontz The Vision/ 10. […] but most of it had been a vague but strong feeling that it would destroy something in the cat that he himself valued – that it would put out the go-to-hell look in the cat’s green eyes. /Stephen King Pet Sematary/

Exercise 2.12. Pick out the cases of the epithet from the fragments below and state their type. Speak about the effect produced by the given tropes:

1. The plane came out of the shattered air, slipping down glass-smooth for a moment. /Dean Koontz Cold Fire/ 2. Under that tough, touch-me-again-buster-and-you’ll-get-linguini-in-your-lap exterior, she was one of those women who was willing to turn her world inside out for some man who almost certainly didn’t deserve it. /Tony Parsons Man and Boy/ 3. His sense of humour was waspish-acerbic, but his basic nature. /James Herbert Others/ 4. A fleshy red blob of a nose reached nearly to his grey upper lip. /Jonathan Kellerman The Clinic/ 5. But again, looking at Champagne’s exhausted, bruised and make-up-less face, perhaps it wasn’t such a compliment. /Wendy Holden Simply Divine/ 6. The cabbie gave a why-do-I-always-get-the-wisenheimers snort… but he shut up /Stephen King The Breathing Method/ (from Different Seasons by Stephen King/ 7. Quilla had closed the brochure and turned it over. On the back was a map. She tapped a snaky blue line. “This is Route 68,” she said. /Stephen King The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon/ 8. Psychopath’s catch-me-if-you-can challenge /Jonathan Kellerman The Clinic/ 9. The photograph-crammed walls of Victoria’s office began to spin round Jane. /Wendy Holden Simply Divine/ 10. The girl gave him a you’ve-got-to-be-kidding look and he grinned. /Jonathan Kellerman The Clinic/

Exercise 2.13. Analyse the cases of oxymoron in bold type and say how they render the author’s purport:

1. It took me all of two timeless seconds to make up my mind. But I chose my words with more care than I made the decision. /James Herbert Others/ 2. There’s a certain terrible beauty about the Stones when they sing, but I don’t believe they are evil. /Phyllis A. Whitney The Singing Stones/ 3. The flight engineer was paging through a manual, a look of quiet desperation on his face. /Dean Koontz Cold Fire/ 4. And it did spring, snow billowing around its pistoning rear legs in a silent burst of crystal glitter. /Stephen King The Shining/ 5. I often broke the wrong rules. /Hal Porter First Love/ 6. Encouraged to rest but charged by adrenaline, she remained wide-awake, watching the clock as the hours slowly passed. /Sandra Brown Charade/ 7. “This will take some time, okay,” I said, thoroughly clueless about how long anything would take. /John Grisham The Street Lawyer/ 8. She was suddenly furious. And I saw again that we could never recreate what had once existed between us. We could be polite, affectionate even, but the love we had lost was impossible to duplicate now. I looked at the face of this familiar stranger. /Tony Parsons Man & Wife/

Exercise 2.14. Find the cases of oxymoron in the fragments below and say how they decode the author’s purport:

1. She was tall and a little too thin. Her hair was dark red and cut short and smart. /John Grisham The Street Lawyer/ 2. He stared at her with those gas-flame-blue eyes. She felt as if she were gazing into the pure fire of his soul. But his blue eyes were cold, filled with rage but cold. Cold fire. /Dean Koontz Cold Fire/ 3. He had turned down one corridor and then another, his heart leaping into his mouth like a hot lump of ice. /Stephen King The Shining/ 4. Now the leper’s face, haunted and peeling, rotting with sores, stared at them with the eyes of the living dead. /Stephen King It/ 5. After that no-one even looked up at my window, though I counted over sixty heads, but I felt their studied, curious indifference. /Joanne Harris Chocolate/ 6. The severed heads of Bluebeard’s seven previous wives were in the room, each one on its own pedestal, the eyes turned up to whites, the mouths unhinged and gaping in silent screams. /Stephen King The Shining/ 7. “Nothing like a little pressure, Mordecai,” I said, a bit too harshly. /John Grisham The Street Lawyer/ 8. A screaming, glowing ribbon of pain and dark light. Nothing could cross it and survive. /N. Gaiman & T. Pratchett Good Omens/

Exercise 2.15. Here are the most frequent oxymorons you come across every daily. Analyse them and say what idea they render:

Top 30 Oxymorons

Act naturally Found missing Genuine imitation Good grief Same difference Almost exactly Sanitary landfill Alone together Silent scream Living dead

Small crowd Business ethics Soft rock Diet ice cream Military intelligence New classic Sweet sorrow “Now then…” Synthetic natural gas Passive aggression

Taped live Clearly misunderstood Peace force Extinct life Plastic glasses Terribly pleased Tight slacks Definite maybe Pretty ugly Rap music

Exercise 2.16. Analyse the cases of antonomasia in bold type and say what message they render:

1. “What about all that stuff about Lord Right? What about finding the perfect man?” /Wendy Holden Simply Divine/

2. “I’m a mess.”

“Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, Cameron Diaz – they’d all kill to look as good as you.” […]

“I’m a freak.”

“Oh, yeah, right, you’re the Elephant Woman. We’ll have to put a sack over your head and warn away small children.” /Dean Koontz False Memory/

3. The old man smiled. “I don’t care.”

“Right,” said Milo. “You’re Don Corleone.” /Jonathan Kellerman The Clinic/

4. He had pushed all his sons to set goals, work hard, strive to be Big Men, with everything aimed at making lots of money and living the American dream. /John Grisham The Street Lawyer/

5. “Say hi to Mr. Legend. Tell him no matter what he does for his bosses, he’ll never be anything to them but a queer.” /Joseph Kellerman The Clinic/

6. Being Mr. Feminist… He impressed me as one of those guys who tries to prove how unsexist he is by dumping on other guys. /Jonathan Kellerman The Clinic/

7. “I hate like hell that you had to put your career on hold.”

“I’m having a baby, our baby. That makes me very happy.”

“While you’re playing Happy Homemaker, the other associates are getting the jump on you.” /Sandra Brown Charade/

8. New York, richest city in the world, can’t house its people, so they sleep on the streets, and this upsets the sensitive New Yorkers, so they elect Rudy WhatsHisFace who promises to clean up the streets. /John Grisham The Street Lawyer/

9. Creed turned to the girl and smiled his Mickey Rourke smile. /James Herbert Creed/

10. “If you could prove IQ loss, Alex, I could translate it into dollars.”

“Mal –”

He laughed over the phone. “I know, I know, Mr. – excuse me, Dr. Conservative. Far be it me to –”

“Good talking to you, Mal. Have the mother call me to set the appointment.” /Jonathan Kellerman Silent Partner/

Exercise 2.17. Point out and analyze the cases of antonomasia and say what message they render:

1. Rounding the corner, hoping to happen upon garlic bread, Jane bumped into Mr. Leather Jacket again. /Wendy Holden Simple Divine/ 2. “So you buy his Mr. Submissive routine? She was God, he worshiped at her altar?” /Jonathan Kellerman The Clinic/ 3. Phillip Savelle returned and took his seat. “So what have you Robin Hoods decided now?” he asked. /John Grisham Runaway Jury/ 4. “Well, Mr. Hershey Bar, I wonder if you could do me a favour.” /Dean Koontz The Vision/ 5. Awkwardly, she rose and moved to the Mr. Coffee on the counter. /Sandra Brown Charade/ 6. Sir Mark had been aware the Foreign Office regarded him as a sort of unleashed Genghis khan. /Frederick Forsyth The Deceiver/ 7. “People don’t break up because of a one-night stand, Gina. It’s not what grown-ups do. You don’t chuck it all away because of something like that. I know it hurts. I know what I did was wrong. But how did I suddenly go from being Mr. Wonderful to Mr. Piece of Shit?” /Tony Parsons Man and Boy/ 8. However, the public had adored her because Lily Neverless was a great actress when playing the Woman-You-Love-to-Hate. /James Herbert Creed/ 9. Friday, the stock goes public. It was offered at twenty a share, the price we could’ve bought it for if Mr. Wall Street over there had done what he promised. /John Grisham The Brethren/ 10. She shifted her weight from one hip to the other, trying to get a firmer grip on the books she was holding. “Here, let me help you with those.” Something in her was bringing out the Lancelot in me. /Jonathan Kellerman Silent Partner/

Tropes based on the Intensification

of a Certain Feature of a Thing or Phenomenon

Exercise 2.18. Analyse the cases of simile in bold type, say what form words are used to connect the compared objects:

1. Their noisy breathing seemed to fill the room like rushing wind, yet her hearing was so acute that she could detect the soft ticking of her Cartier watch. /Dean Koontz Whispers/ 2. It was the first time Hermione had ever failed to answer a teacher’s question. She was staring at her slippers, as still as a statue. /J.K. Rowling Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone/ 3. Professor Binns paused again, pursing his lips, looking like a wrinkled old tortoise. /J. Rowling Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets/ 4. But this old farm is about as marketable as a truckload of sand in the middle of the Mojave. /Dean Koontz Cold Fire/ 5. Abruptly weak, she bent forward, hunching her shoulders, feeling as if a great weight of stones had been stacked on her back. /Dean Koontz False Memory/ 6. Cyd was waiting for him, her face as impassive as a clenched fist. /Tony Parsons Man and Boy/ 7. Across the street from the apartment house, Peterson sat alone in a parked car, watching as the third-floor windows blew out, the wall exploded, and Malowe arched out into the rainy night as though he were a clown shot from a cannon. /Dean Koontz The Key to Midnight/ 8. The smell of wood and earth and wild vegetation rose chokingly, and after bright sunlight, darkness fell like a blanket around me. /Phyllis A. Whitney The Singing Stones/ 9. A sorrow, quiet but as heavy and gray as lead, pressed her voice thin. /Dean Koontz False Memory/ 10. She rose from her stool and stepped to a door behind the counter, revealing that she was wearing high-heeled sandals and tight white shorts that clung to her butt as snuggly as a coat of paint. /Dean Koontz Cold Fire/

Exercise 2.19. Point out cases of simile in the fragment below and speak about the effect produced by comparison in them:

1. Madame Pince, the librarian, was thin, irritable woman who looked like an underfed vulture. /J. Rowling Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets/ 2. Deliberatly causing mayhem in Snape’s Potions class was about as safe as poking a sleeping dragon in the eye. /J. Rowling Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets/ 3. Harry’s heart dropped like a stone. /J. Rowling Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets/ 4. The door had barely shut behind them when it opened again. Cora Rusk and Myra Evans strode in. They looked around, eyes as bright as those of squirrels in nut-gathering season, and went immediately to the glass case containing the picture of Elvis. /Stephen King Needful Things/ 5. Max’s hard gray eyes were like knives, dissecting her. /Dean Koontz The Vision/ 6. She was so angry she could see her own pulse as bright points of light before her eyes. Wilma’s face was working in a way Pete Jerzyck found extremely alarming: it was as if a nest of baby snakes had hatched just beneath her skin. /Stephen King Needful Things/ 7. Neither she nor Nicholas had believed they would ever be tracked to Lawrence. Now that they had, the question fell like hard rain around her. /John Grisham Runaway Jury/ 8. The bleak cold December sky was so low and heavy that the city seemed to huddle beneath it in expectation of being crushed. /Dean Koontz The Key to Midnight/ 9. She’s afraid of anything she considers ugly, and she can shutter like glass. /Phyllis A. Whitney The Singing Stones/ 10. The sky pressed down, as gray-black as wet ashes and char. The rain wasn’t the usual glittering silver, but dark and dirty, as if nature were a scrubwoman wringing out a filthy mop. /Dean Koontz False Memory/

Exercise 2.20. Analyse cases of periphrasis and euphemism in bold type, say whether they are metonymic or metaphoric, and decode them:

1. Wasn’t Edwina always warning him he was too cynical? That he was wearing out his life from the inside? /John Lutz Blood Fire/

2. “So what’s your problem, Mr. Ghostly?”

“My wife.”

Now Carver had to tame a smile. The old story. That was what kept him in business, trouble between sexes. Love, lust, whatever, really did make the world go round, dropping people off at Carver’s door. /John Lutz Blood Fire/

3. “Hogwarts cannot have two champions. It’s most unjust. Otherwise, we would, of course, have brought along a wider selection of candidates from our own schools. Evidently, someone wished to give Hogwarts two bites at the apple!” /J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire/

4. The lawsuit at hand was wood v. Pynex, so the roulette wheel had placed him on the hot seat. /John Grisham Runaway Jury/

5. His parents, my clients, were frantic and only too willing to accept his burgeoning lifestyle if only he would return to the nest. /James Herbert Others/

6. “She was of average height, about five six. Slender. Dark hair, brown eyes, pretty girl, all the bells and whistles.” /John Grisham Runaway Jury/

7. When they landed at Heathrow, Alex’s long legs were cramped, swollen, and leaden. His back ached all the way from the base of his spine to his neck. His eyes were bloodshot, grainy, and sore. From the look of her, Joanna had the same list of complaints. /Dean Koontz The key to Midnight/

8. I got a pretty good job in Portland […] and started the work of convincing her to quit her own job. It was tough sled at first. But finally she threw in the towel. /Stephen King Riding the Bullet/

9. There’s not much call for a translator when companies are going belly up. /Tony Parsons Man and Boy/

10. He was already having a hard time at the U, thinking about transferring out. /Jonathan Kellerman The Clinic/

Exercise 2.21. Point out cases of periphrasis and euphemism, state their type and decode them:

1. Glenn breezed in and out of their lives, casually missing birthdays and Christmases and then turning up unexpectedly with some large, inappropriate gift. /Tony Parsons Man and Boy/ 2. “Want to guess how many other Hippocratic types are standing in line to do that?” /Jonathan Kellerman The Clinic/ 3. “…For the last five years you’ve been my secret benefactor, and at last I’m getting to know you. Would you like more coffee?” Was she trying to snow him? Did she mean it? /M.H. Clark Double Vision/ 4. He wouldn’t touch the papers, so I dropped them at his feet in the hallway, then did a fade. /James Herbert Others/ 5. He green-lighted the meeting at Hoppy’s office. /John Grisham Runaway Jury/ 6. “If you need it, say so.” “And bring out the dragon in Mrs. Davidson again?” /Stephen King The Breathing Method/ (from Different seasons by Stephen King) 7. “It’s kinda fun, really. People give you space, treat you with velvet gloves. Might as well make the most of it.” /John Grisham The Street Lawyer/ 8. A male voice yelled “Hey!” in the hallway, and I jumped out of my skin. /John Grisham The Street Lawyer/ 9. After two kids, the marriage went south. His wife got custody and moved to Portland. /John Grisham The Street Lawyer/ 10. “I know you will help her to accustom herself to the style of our school, take her under your wing, so to speak” /Fune Flaum Singer The Debutantes/

Exercise 2.22. Analyse the cases of hyperbole in bold type, say whether it is qualitative or quantitative and speak about the effect produced:

1. Mr. Weasley heaved a deep sigh. “I sent him a letter about that just last week. If I’ve told him once I’ve told him a hundred times, […] but will he listen?” /J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire/ 2. We went into the living room where Peggy and Pat were sitting surrounded by an avalanche of toys. /Tony Parsons Man and Boy/ 3. Max rolled from the yard-high windowsill onto the boardwalk, and the short fall seemed like twenty miles. For a long moment after he fell, floating in a sea of pain, he considered the appealing, beckoning emptiness that welled up inside of him./Dean Koontz The Vision/ 4. How do you keep your skin so good? Look at mine – a mass of lines and wrinkles. /Judi James Supermodel/ 5. Tell me please, Lucy. I can’t stand it any longer. What will you do to me? You are killing me, my darling child. /Judi James Supermodel/ 6. Just makes me sick. Probably some clod who can’t hit a barn with a shotgun. /John Grisham Runaway Jury/ 7. Trisha lay clutching the pack and holding her breath. After an eternity, another branch cracked, this one a little further off. Whatever it was, it was moving away. /Stephen King The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon/ 8. America was different – the US was the centre of the universe and always good for a visit. /Judi James Supermodel/ 9. I sensed every opportunity to stock a granary of impressions. /Hal Porter First Love/ 10. Her eyes watered for the umpteenth time that night. /John Grisham The Runaway Jury/

Exercise 2.23. Pick out cases of hyperbole, and state their type. Speak about the effect produced:

1. After the fashion meeting, Jane wandered out into a features department more deserted than the Marie Celeste after a bomb scare. /Wendy Holden Simply Divine/ 2. The stewardess had seen phobias a million times. /Judi James Supermodel/ 3. I intend to be so lit up that I can do my bedtime reading by my own light. /Dean Koontz The Vision/ 4. He never drank, though in an earlier life he’d consumed enough to float a barge. /John Grisham Runaway Jury/ 5. Time ceased to have meaning for Goldman. Each second extended itself a hundredfold. /Dean Koontz The Vision/ 6. “And what am I?” “The Kind of person who […] always cries buckets at even slightly sad movies.” /Dean Koontz The Vision/ 7. There were people standing everywhere – stood-up annoyed, looking sheepish, studying their watchers for the thirtieth time. /Judi James Supermodel/ 8. She would have followed that arm anywhere – to hell and back, if necessary. /Judi James Supermodel/ 9. Let them know my husband has to watch pennies like a streetcar conductor. /Irwin Shaw Return to Kansas City/ 10. “Is it hard to get a room here?” “Nearly impossible. There’s a waiting list a mile long, and the shelter can screen who gets in. /John Grisham The Street Lawyer/

Exercise 2.24. Analyse the cases of understatement in bold type and speak about the effect produced:

1. It was chilly and the moon was still out. Only dull, greenish tinge along the horizon to the right showed that daybreak was drawing closer. /J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire/ 2. She led us to the table by the side of a stage where more girls wearing only high heels and dental floss for underwear were sliding up and down poles. /Tony Parsons Man and Boy/ 3. As she went through the parlor on her way to the mahogany staircase, she felt dwarfed by the heavy European furniture. /Dean Koontz The Vision/ 4. “Frankly, I’d rather write a bonkbuster. I see you’ve got quite a collection. /Wendy Holden Simply Divine/ 5. She was sitting on the edge of the Thumbelina-sized stool, silent. /Forsyth Frederick The Deceiver/ 6. Oliver looked like a man who was about to sell his mother for a shilling. /Judi James Supermodel/

Exercise 2.25. Point out cases of understatement and speak about the effect produced:

1. He knew the guard: Victor something, a stout, fiftyish man with close-cropped gray hair and steel-rimmed spectacles. /Dean Koontz Lightning/

2. “How many lots does the city have?”

He shrugged and began walking away. “More than one,” he said. /John Grisham The Street Lawyer/

3. No shoulders, no neck – his smallish head seemed to sprout from his sternum. /Jonathan Kellerman The Clinic/

4. “Tell me something,” I said. “With senile dementia, does the victim forget everything?”

“Good gracious, no.”

Good gracious? I loved it. I hadn’t heard that kind of exclamation in many a year. /James Herbert Others/

5. I arrived safely but a little dead in the heart. /James Herbert Others/

6. Jane saw Champagne standing in the doorway wearing nothing more than a challenging gaze. /Wendy Holden Simply Divine/

Exercise 2.26. Point out cases of proverbs and sayings, allusions in bold type and say what books and other sources they refer to:

1. “You’re leaving. What do you care?” Word travelled fast, but I was not surprised. /John Grisham The Street Lawyer/ 2. The place is hardly in the state to sell. The electricity supply is totally erratic – the state of our connections would horrify Mr. Darcy. /Wendy Holden Simply Divine/ 3. No matter how good she looked, she was still a minor in a bad environment and I was the one she confided in. But I told myself she’d found her niche, why upset the cart? And things were different back then? /Jonathan Kellerman The Clinic/ 4. Ten minutes later, the sky grew darker and lower, and rain fell in silvery cataracts the equal of anything that Noah had witnessed while hurrying to complete his ark. /Dean Koontz Cold Fire/ 5. Yet, sighed Tally, if her mother was forcing her to sell the home there was no use crying over spilt milk. /Wendy Holden Simply Divine/ 6. Gina was mad about my parents and the feeling was mutual. They looked at this blonde vision coming up the garden path with their little grandson, and the pair of them seemed to visibly swell with pleasure, smiling shyly behind their reading glasses and geraniums. None of them could believe their luck. My parents thought they were getting Grace Kelly. Gina thought she was getting the Waltons. /Tony Parsons Man and Boy/ 7. Where other seats had broken free and slammed together, she saw injured passengers and cadavers heaped on one another, and the only way to tell the quick from the dead was to listen closely to determine which of them was groaning. /Dean Koontz Cold Fire/ 8. “And what am I?” “The kind of person who always asks for whom the bell tolls […]” /Dean Koontz The Vision/ 9. She felt hollow, light. She could imagine being carried off by the breeze, slight as it was. Pretty son, she thought, I won’t need a tornado like Dorothy did. Just a puff of air will carry me off to Oz. /Dean Koontz The Vision/ 10. There was no point, having worked away at Nick for the last few years and finally succeeded in moving in with him, to risk the bird-in-the-hand reality of a permanent relationship by having a crush on the upstairs neighbour. /Wendy Holden Simply Divine/

Exercise 2.27. Point out cases of proverbs and sayings, allusions and say what sources they refer to:

1. Neither he nor his four-legged Mr. Watson discovered anything amiss in the back street. /Dean Koontz False Memory/

2. The barn exerted no emotional pull on him whatsoever, but the windmill was another story. When he turned his gaze on that cone of limestone beyond the wide pond, he felt as though he were being transformed into stone himself, as had been the luckless victims of the mythological serpent-haired Medusa when they had seen her snake-ringed face. /Dean Koontz Cold Fire/

3. Hoping to distract the kid or at least to buy a little time, Dusty said, “Something I’ve always wondered… What does the angel of death look like?” […] A hard gust of wind tore off Dusty’s white cap and spun it to Oz, but he didn’t take his attention off Skeet. /Dean Koontz False Memory/

4. He walked away. And, although it may seem odd, having been left to sink or swim in such an unfamiliar situation, I did enjoy myself. /Stephen King The Breathing Method/ (from Different Seasons by Stephen King/

5. “I thank you for the ride and even more for the offer,” I said. “But I can go out that way –“ I pointed at Pleasant Street. “And I’ll have a ride in no time.”