Maria is reading a humorous story in which many of the ideas are downplayed or treated casually. which literary device is the author using in the story?
a.symbolism
b.allegory
c.hyperbole
d.cunderstatement

D. Understatement

Explanation:

Understatement is a literary device in which an author intentionally makes a statement of less importance or intensity than what the reader would normally expect. Understatement is usually intended to have an ironic effect, due to its contradictory and unexpected nature. In this case, if Maria feels like the author intentionally downplays many important ideas, it is likely that he is using understatement.

A is the correct answer. The summary contains mostly simple sentences, which consist of one subject and one predicate. Complex sentences, on the other hand, consist of more than one clause. A simple sentence is, for example, ‘This created a hole in the floor of the Sky-World’.