Question

read the excerpt from mark twain’s “the £1,000,000 bank - note”. well, i was perfectly honest and square with her, told her i hadn’t a cent in the world but just the million - pound note she’d heard so much talk about, and it didn’t belong to me, and that started her curiosity; and then i talked low, and told her the whole history right from the start, and it nearly killed her laughing. what in the nation she could find to laugh about i couldn’t see, but there it was; every half - minute some new detail would hit her, and i would have to stop as much as a minute and a half to give her a chance to settle down again. why, she laughed herself lame—she did, indeed. i never saw anything like it. i mean i never saw a painful story—a story of a person’s troubles and worries and fears—produce just that kind of effect before. which rhetorical device is demonstrated in the excerpt? a. hyperbole b. allusion c. metaphor d. oxymoron

Explanation:

In the excerpt, the phrase "nearly killed her laughing" is an exaggeration (hyperbole) as laughing can't actually kill someone. Hyperbole is a rhetorical device that uses extreme exaggeration for effect, which matches this usage. Allusion refers to referencing another work/idea, metaphor makes a non - literal comparison, and oxymoron combines contradictory terms—none of these fit as well as hyperbole here.

Answer:

A. hyperbole