We always started with the easy [words] I 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 trapezes in full swing. –Barrio Boy,
Ernesto Galarza

trapeze: a device used in gymnastics and acrobatics made up of a short horizontal bar attached to the ends of two parallel ropes.

Reread the simile. Describe how it helps you see and understand what the author is experiencing.