Here’s something the writer Raymond Chandler says in The Long Goodbye (a pretty good book!). He’s talking about getting a drunk guy up some stairs, and he says:

I got the drunk up them somehow. He was eager to help but his legs were rubber and he kept falling asleep in the middle of an apologetic sentence.

I bet they don’t put Raymond Chandler on the GED, but I wish they would! Still, he uses metaphors just like the literature writers on the GED. He says the guy’s legs were rubber. They aren’t really rubber, but you know right away what it means. The guy couldn’t stand, he was so drunk, and his legs kept folding up under him. Saying “his legs were rubber” tells you right away what the writer wants you to know by using a comparison.

Here’s a worksheet about metaphors that gives you the basics, to help you study for the GED test: http://www.rhlschool.com/eng3n26.htm

Sometimes, metaphors you find on the GED get a lot harder, like in poetry. There’s almost always some poetry on the GED. Here’s a poem that uses metaphors, and it’s just the kind that comes up on that GED reading test.

The Silken Tent
by Robert Frost

She is as in a field a silken tent
At midday when the sunny summer breeze
Has dried the dew and all its ropes relent,
So that in guys it gently sways at ease,
And its supporting central cedar pole,
That is its pinnacle to heavenward
And signifies the sureness of the soul,
Seems to owe naught to any single cord,
But strictly held by none, is loosely bound
By countless silken ties of love and thought
To everything on earth the compass round,
And only by one’s going slightly taut
In the capriciousness of summer air
Is of the slightest bondage made aware.

Can you figure it out? What’s the poet saying? What’s the main idea? That’s what you’ll need to find out if you run across a poem like this on the GED! I’ll work on figuring out this one, and then I’ll let you know what I found out next time.

To find out more about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit The GED Academy at passGED.com.

I found books at the Online Books Page, Classic Reader and also Google Books (if you search for “full view”). It’s easy to find  a book to read, any time. I like to read mysteries, because they’re sort of like puzzles, to think about what the solution is. I started reading this one I found on Classic Reader, called Where There’s a Will. So, I thought I’d make a GED reading practice question from it… Here it is!

He sauntered over and dropped a quarter into the slot-machine by the door, but the thing was frozen up and refused to work. I’ve seen the time when Mr. Sam would have kicked it, but he merely looked at it and then at me.

“Turned virtuous, like everthing else around the place. Not that I don’t approve of virtue, Minnie, but I haven’t got used to putting my foot on the brass rail of the bar and ordering a nut sundae…”

When Mr. Sam says “ordering a nut sundae,” it’s a metaphor for:

1) going crazy

2) being virtuous

3) gambling

4) being sinful

What do you think? Can you answer the question?

Going into a bar and ordering an ice-cream sundae isn’t literal language, it’s not talking about really ordering  a sundae. It’s what’s called figurative language. It’s talking about something else. That’s what it means to be a “metaphor.” So, what’s it really talking about? What does it mean?

You need to read the passage to understand what he’s saying. He tries to use a slot machine, and it doesn’t work. He says it’s being virtuous… that’s because the slot-machine is “refusing” to gamble. That’s what’s called personification… he’s talking about the slot machine like it’s a person. So there’s lots of figurative language in this quote!

He says he doesn’t disapprove of virtue but he’s not used to going into a bar and ordering a sundae. The part about the sundae is the metaphor. So, what answer can replace the part about the sundae, and still make sense?

He doesn’t disapprove of virtue but he’s not used to going crazy? That doesn’t make sense. He doesn’t disapprove of virtue but he’s not used to being virtuous? That’s more like it. It makes sense! What about the next one? He doesn’t disapprove of virtue but he’s not used to gambling? That’s not very logical! What about, he doesn’t disapprove of virtue but he’s not used to being sinful? That doesn’t make sense, either, not as much as answer 2. Answer 2 is right… ordering a sundae is virtuous (instead of ordering liquor, at a bar). So, that’s the metaphor.

Good reading! And good GED studying!

For more information about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit the GED Academy at http://www.passGED.com.

Celebrate Banned Books Week

Banned Books Online

Controversial and Banned Books

Okay, now here’s the practice question… from William Faulkner’s book As I Lay Dying, which was banned in 1986 by the Graves County, Kentucky school board:

Jewel and I come up from the field, following the path in single file. Although I am fifteen feet ahead of him, anyone watching us from the cottonhouse can see Jewel’s frayed and broken straw hat a full head above my own.

The path runs straight as a plumb-line, worn smooth by feet and baked brick-hard by July, between the green rows of laidby cotton, to the cottonhouse in the center of the field, where it turns and circles the cottonhouse at four soft right angles and goes on across the field again, worn so by feet in fading precision.

The cottonhouse is of rough logs, from between which the chinking has long fallen. Square, with a broken roof set at a single pitch, it leans in empty and shimmering dilapidation in the sunlight, a single broad window in two opposite walls giving onto the approaches of the path. When we reach it I turn and follow the path which circles the house. Jewel, fifteen feet behind me, looking straight ahead, steps in a single stride through the window. Still staring straight ahead, his pale eyes like wood set into his wooden face, he crosses the floor in four strides with the rigid gravity of a cigar store Indian dressed in patched overalls and endued with life from the hips down, and steps in a single stride through the opposite window and into the path again just as I come around the corner. In single file and five feet apart and Jewel now in front, we go on up the path toward the foot of the bluff.

When the writer says Jewel has “the rigid gravity of a cigar store Indian,” he means:

1) Jewel is part Native American.

2) Jewel is not moving at all.

3) Jewel seems tense and stiff.

4) Jewel is smokng a cigar.

5) Jewel is excitable but hiding his feelngs.

So, what did you think? Do you find the answer? This is what’s called a metaphor. The author is comparing Jewel to a wooden Indian that stands outside a cigar store. Now, there aren’t any cigar stores with wooden Indians outside them anymore, anyway not a lot of them, so who knows anything about that? But you can probably tell that it’s a metaphor, he’s not really saying Jewel is an Indian or anything about Jewel smoking a cigar. It’s also not saying Jewel is not moving at all, because Jewel is walking. So that leaves answers 3 and 5. Answer 5 says Jewel is excitable… but there’s not anything in the passage to hint at that. It would be reading too much into it. The answer is 3… Jewel is stiff, like a wood statue of an Indian. Do you think you could think that one through?

Good luck on your GED!

The Silken Tent
by Robert Frost

She is as in a field a silken tent
At midday when the sunny summer breeze
Has dried the dew and all its ropes relent,
So that in guys it gently sways at ease,
And its supporting central cedar pole,
That is its pinnacle to heavenward
And signifies the sureness of the soul,
Seems to owe naught to any single cord,
But strictly held by none, is loosely bound
By countless silken ties of love and thought
To everything on earth the compass round,
And only by one’s going slightly taut
In the capriciousness of summer air
Is of the slightest bondage made aware.

On the GED you’ve got to read carefully, and especially for poems. So I’m going to try to take this apart, one line at a time, like I would for the GED test.

The Silken Tent
by Robert Frost

First the name. What’s he mean, a silken tent? What about it? A tent made of silk? At the beginning, see, I just ask myself questions, so I can try to figure out things later on.

She is as in a field a silken tent

The first line talks about the silken tent. It’s said a little funny, but he’s saying a woman is like a silk tent in a field. That’s what we talked about before… saying one thing is another thing. If you use “like” or “as,” it’s called a simile… like “similar.”

At midday when the sunny summer breeze
Has dried the dew and all its ropes relent,

Now he’s describing the tent, like a picture. It helps to picture it in your head… that’s something to remember while taking the GED test. I picture a tent in the middle of a field, and it’s the middle of the day, sunny, with a breeze. All the morning dew is dried. The ropes “relent”? What does that mean? They give up? Soften? Maybe they’re slack, not tight, you know.

So that in guys it gently sways at ease,

Okay, I had to look up this one: “guys” It means, ropes that hold a tent or something. So I guess they are slack, like I thought. On the GED, I’d probably just skip this word. Anyway, back to my picture: So, we’ve got this silk tent, softly swaying in the breeze. Pretty.

And its supporting central cedar pole,
That is its pinnacle to heavenward

Now, he’s talking about the pole in the center. It points up to heaven. (Pinnacle? Well, what would go to heavenward? It must mean the end, the top, si? That’s a vocabulary word I could guess on the GED.)

And signifies the sureness of the soul,

Now I’m getting it. I’ve got to take the picture of the tent and think back about it meaning a person. Making connections, that’s important for the GED. She’s got a good soul, right… “sureness of the soul.” So, she’s got a center that is tall, points to heaven, so she’s good at heart. But outside is more soft and gentle, like the silk and the ropes, maybe.

Seems to owe naught to any single cord,
But strictly held by none, is loosely bound
By countless silken ties of love and thought
To everything on earth the compass round,

Okay… The center of the woman’s soul, the post… deep stuff for the GED… it stands on its own, without help… but the outward softness, “silken ties” are love that binds her to everything around. So maybe she is in tune with nature or something, her love goes out to the whole world.

And only by one’s going slightly taut
In the capriciousness of summer air
Is of the slightest bondage made aware.

So, she’s not really bound by her ties or her love for anyone outside her, except when there’s a problem or something, maybe. A big thing for me on the GED is vocabulary. “Taut” is a new one… but I can picture what happens to a rope in the wind… they’re loose, right, so the wind comes and pulls it tight…taut. I could get that on the GED test. “Capriciousness”… I don’t know that one. “Capriciousness of summer air…” Not stable, I guess? I don’t know that I’d know for sure what it was during the GED, without a dictionary. Let me look that up… it seems to mean whimsical or something. I don’t think it stops me from understanding, though.

If you were reading this on the GED, you’d need to figure out what the main idea is. He’s making a picture, to show what this woman is like. She’s got a solid, independent soul looking up to heaven. She loves the things around her in the world, but she’s not too tightly bound to them. That sums it up, right? On the GED, I guess I could figure out the main meaning… even though this is a hard one!

To find out more about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit The GED Academy at passGED.com.