Text:Map: The vast Muslim world was wonderful for the growth of knowledge. The Greeks had developed a level of practical experie
nce and technical understanding a thousand years more advanced than anyone else nearby. The Muslims began to translate some of these ancient Greek texts. From India, Muslims learned of the zero, which allowed them to invent what we still call "Arabic" numerals. And because the Koran, the sacred book of Islam, is written in Arabic, scholars throughout the Muslim world learned to read Arabic and to share their knowledge. The Muslims swept past Jundi Shapur and learned the secrets of sugar. As they conquered lands around the Mediterranean Sea, they spread word of how to grow, mill, and refine the sweet reed. –Sugar Changed the World, Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos How does the map develop the central idea of the passage? It provides a visual representation of lands conquered by Muslims. It shows the regions that benefited from Muslims’ knowledge of sugar. It illustrates how the growth and refining of sugar led to Muslim conquests. It demonstrates that Muslims grew sugar outside of the Mediterranean.
A thing that represents itself and something else – symbol. An example would be the dove, or the colour white, symbolizing peace.
One thing IS another – metaphor. What distinguishes the metaphor from the simile is that the metaphor is directly introducing the imagery in the text without a comparison word. An example would be: "he is such a pig."
One thing is like another – simile. The simile introduces the comparison with a word such as "like" or "as." "He eats like an ogre" could be an example.
Mental pictures created through descriptions which appeal to the senses – imagery. In literature, the purpose of imagery is to enrich the text by enabling the reader to picture elements of it in their mind.
Use of one word in place of another word associated with it – metonymy. A common type of metonymy is the designation of something by where it is contained, for example "the White House" for the President's administration.
A word which imitates a sound – onomatopoeia. Such as <em>woof</em>, <em>crack</em>, <em>bang</em>.
Exaggeration – hyperbole.
Apparent contradiction – paradox.
Repetition of initial consonant sounds – alliteration. This is often used in poetry, but also in prose, to help the reader imagine the sounds of the scene which is being described (like lots of <em>L</em>s when writing about water, or <em>S</em>s when writing about a snake).
