The big boulder blasted the house illustrates _________

Step 1: Analyze the question The sentence is "The big boulder blasted the house." We need to identify which figure of speech or sound device it shows.

Step 2: Recall the concepts

• Alliteration: repetition of the same initial consonant sound in nearby words (e.g., "Peter Piper picked...").
• Contrast: placing opposite ideas side by side (e.g., "hot and cold").
• Irony: saying or showing the opposite of what is expected or meant.
• Paradox: a statement that seems self-contradictory but contains truth (e.g., "less is more").

Step 3: Apply to the sentence Look at the words: big, boulder, blasted. Three words close together begin with the same consonant sound /b/. There is no opposition of ideas (contrast), no reversal of meaning (irony), and no seeming self-contradiction (paradox).

The repeated /b/ sound is also a plosive sound, which suggests the force and noise of an explosion, giving the line a sound effect that matches its meaning.

Step 4: Answer The sentence illustrates alliteration, which is option A.

Exam tip: For sound-device questions, read the sentence aloud and look at the first sounds of the words. If the same consonant sound keeps repeating (b-b-b), it is alliteration. If the repeated sound is a vowel sound inside words, it is assonance instead.