DHAI EDUCATION SYSTEM

ENGLISH LITERAL AND METAPHORICAL USES IGCSE-I

Name: Date:
Topic: Literal and Metaphorical Uses
Read the following text.
Amy Johnson was a pioneer aviator who broke the 1930 record by flying from England to India
in a primitive aeroplane called Jason.
She landed there on the largest space she could find which turned out to be a military parade
ground. Jason ran across it, and collided with a post on the far side, damaging the front edge of
one wing. A carpenter from the nearby village repaired it, while a tailor sewed up the wing.
Amy was helped with her engine overhaul by officers of the regiment whose parade-ground she
had landed on. She directed the operations, and to cool down, she was given a welcome drink.
She was able to get enough petrol at Jhansi to fly on early the next morning to Allahabad, where
she took on another 40 gallons of petrol. And on she went, for another 460 miles, flying into
strong head winds and reaching Calcutta at six o’clock in the evening of Monday, May 12th.
She looked tired, and her face was sunburned and starting to peel, but she told reporters that she
felt very fit, despite having only three hours sleep a night, and living on a diet of sandwiches and
fruit, which she ate while she was flying.
What she did need was clothes—and everywhere she stopped people gave her shirts and shorts,
and even dresses. When the front petrol tank was filled, it often overflowed, and the petrol ran
into the cockpit where Amy’s clothes were stored. She had to go to bed in pyjamas which had
soaked up the petrol.
But clothes were a minor problem indeed, compared with what Amy had to face after she left
Calcutta to fly the 650 miles to Rangoon in Burma. There was monsoon weather all along the
route, with high winds and driving rain—it was the worst weather she had ever experienced, and
she struggled for hours to get Jason through it. She could hardly see anything and, after crossing
the coast of Burma, she was flying low to get a better view.
Suddenly, she saw a 12,000-foot range of mountains straight ahead.
For each of the italicized words and phrases in the passage:
a) explain the literal meaning and
b) use the word or phrase metaphorically in a sentence of your own. The first one has been
completed for you.
1) landed
Amy Johnson literally landed her plane, that is, she brought it down safely.
Metaphorical use of ‘landed’:
When my mother went to work in the evenings I was landed with looking after my little
brothers.
Now complete the other ten.
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