A demand is like i want this done now and a request is like can you do this for me
A simile is a kind of figurative language used to compare two objects or ideas using the terms "like" or "as". It is used to exaggerate the meaning or to bring a certain point across about the object. In your example, "when I began reading a book it was like a bowl of letter soup, " it compares when you first started reading to a bowl of letter soup which emphasizes how first learning to read is a bit confusing since all you seem to see is a bunch of jumbled letters.
The cyclist that won the race trained hard
Your answers:
"Nor did it matter that by his yielding he subjected himself to a deeper agony in the end and gave serious hurt to Irene Scheerer and to Irene's parents, who had befriended him."
and
"There was nothing sufficiently pictorial about Irene's grief to stamp itself on his mind."
