Interestingly enough, the idea that life has many ups and downs is a metaphor, too. As in the roller coaster metaphor, the idea of ups and downs is not literal as we apply it to our lives.
The language features are effective as they are descriptions which give readers and image in there mind to imagine the situation. To answer the questions write down what image they would create in your mind, or what the sentence is telling you. Hope this will help you.
