Another shoal of cars swam past. One, in particular, caught his eyes, a long slender thing, elegant as a…

Analyze the question: The question asks what the cars are compared to in the first sentence only: "Another shoal of cars swam past."

Explain the concept: This is a question on figures of speech (imagery/metaphor). A metaphor describes one thing as if it were another, using words that belong to the second thing. To answer, look at the key words the writer chooses to describe the cars.

Step-by-step solution:

1. The key words in the first sentence are "shoal" and "swam".
2. A shoal is a large group of fish moving together.
3. Swam is the action fish perform.
4. So the cars are described as a school of fish moving along the road. This is an extended metaphor.

Why not the others?

• A. Birds: The word "swallow" does appear, but it comes in the second sentence ("elegant as a swallow"), and it describes only one particular car, not the cars in the first sentence. The question says "in the first sentence", so this is the trap.
• B. Ants: No word suggests ants, such as "swarm" or "crawl".
• D. Lampposts: Nothing in the passage suggests this.

Answer: The cars are described in terms of fish, which is option C.

Exam tip: In passage-based literature questions, always check which sentence the question points to. Examiners often put a tempting distractor (like "swallow") in a different sentence. Look for the verbs and group nouns (shoal, swam, swarm, flock) because they reveal the image the writer is building.