Read the following excerpt from mark twain's life on the mississippi:

by and by one of our boys went away. he was not heard of for a long time. at last he turned up as apprentice engineer or "striker" on a steamboat. this thing shook the bottom out of all my sunday-school teachings. that boy had been notoriously worldly, and i just the reverse; yet he was exalted to this eminence, and i left in obscurity and misery.
how does twain use hyperbole in this excerpt?

a. to link two unlike concepts: the steamboat and sunday school

b. to show that the speaker is more worldly than he seems to be

c. to overstate the difference between twain and the other boy

d. to exaggerate twain's feelings about the role of religion in society

C. To overstate the difference between Twain and the other boy .

Explanation:

Mark Twain's memoir of his childhood "Life on the Mississippi" recounts his childhood experience of being a steamboat pilot. Apprenticed on a boat in the Mississippi river, this travel book details how he navigated the river from St. Louis to new Orleans.

Hyperbole is the exaggerated overstatement of something that is impossible to even happen in real life. Twain uses hyperbole in the passage where he compares himself with one of the boys of the ship. His comparison of himself with the boy is exaggerated, the difference between him and the other boy being overly stated. To him, the boy was "notoriously worldly" while he himself was just the opposite. So, he could not believe when he learned that he had been apprenticed as an "engineer or striker on a steamboat".

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