Reread the simile. Describe how it helps you see and understand what the author is experiencing.
We always started with the easy words had already
learned, and which I wrote down and read from the slate,
The new ones I had to listen to first, putting them
together as well as I could from the sounds. At the end of
the lesson I had to listen to the formidable words that
sounded more like trapexes in full swing,