Properly used, figures of speech can add both vividness and brevity to your writing.The following is an introduction to several of the most commonly used figures of speech.
Ⅰ.Simile (明喻). A simile compares two things-A and B-by asserting that one is like the other.A simile usually contains the word like , just like , as , just as, as… as …, or as ifand is used to transfer to A the qualities or feelings associated with B.
(1) Life is very much like a mirror: If you smile upon it, it smiles upon you；but if you frown and look doubtful on it, you will get a similar look in return.
(2) Life'slike a play: It's not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.
(3) She was like a cat on hot bricks before her driving test.
(4) A divorce is like an amputation: you survive, but there's less of you. (离婚就像一次截肢手术: 你活下来了, 但也失去了什么。)
(5) The chicken was as tasteless as a piece of cardboard (纸板).
(6) The message is clear: Just as tea and banana cannot go together, nor should the son in a low-class family expect to marry the daughter of a nobleman. (意思很明确: 就像茶和香蕉不搭配一样, 一个出身卑微的小子不应该妄想娶一个贵族小姐为妻。)
(7) On May 3 that year I awoke to a green so startling as to be almost electric, as if spring were simply a matter of flipping (轻击) a switch.
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The following well-written sentences containing similes were collected from Chinese students' writings.
(1) A mobile phone is like a pet you keep.It costs a lot of money when you use it.
(2) A person who lives without pressure is just like a car without an engine.
(3) Learning English is like boating on a long river.You can't reach the destination without constant efforts.
(4) A life without dreams is just like a spring without flowers.
(5) Sometimes, I feel as if I am a boat on the sea without compass.
Ⅱ.Metaphor (暗喻). A metaphor compares two things by identifying one with the other.It does not say that A is like B but instead states that A is B.
(1) Hope is our most effective“drug”in treating cancer.
(2) A book that is shut is but a block.
(3) Money is a bottomless sea, in which honor, conscience, and truth may be drowned.
(4) The library and the Internet are a vast sea of knowledge waiting to be tapped (获取).
(5) Modern cities are a window of modern civilization and, at the same time, a hotbed of crime.
(6) Marriage is war.
(7) A doctor must have the heart of a lion and the hand of a lady.
(8) A heavy silence blanketed the room.
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The following well-written sentences containing metaphors were collected from Chinese students' writings.
(1) True friends are the stars at night.
(2) College is the cradle of love.
(3) Success is candy, and failure is medicine.
(4) Life is the changeable weather.You don't know when it is rainy and when it is sunny.
(5) Children are the hope of families, flowers of spring, and future of the nation.
Ⅲ.Personification (拟人). Personification is a figure of speech in which human characteristics are given to animals, ideas, emotions, or inanimate objects.
(1) Fortune knocks at least once at every man's gate.
(2) Night found the little girl selling flowers in the street.
(3) New Yorkers are proud that the city never sleeps.
(4) The trees were wearing their fall colors.
(5) Flowers saluted the morning sun.
(6) The storm dumped two feet of snow on the roads.
(7) The wind whistled through the trees.
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The following well-written sentences containing personification were collected from Chinese students' writings.
(1) When you are concentrating on your study, a short message about meaningless jokes can drag you out of your academic world.
(2) A student always has a busy life.Early in the morning, he gets up hurriedly, rushes to the cafeteria, and then goes to the classroom to study.Late in the evening, only the moon and the stars follow him home.
(3) In the fall, golden crops are nodding their heads in breeze to people.
(4) Spring wakes up the sleeping earth.
(5) The global financial crisis will likely see more employees lose their jobs in the years ahead.
Ⅳ.Parody (仿拟). A parody is an imitation of an existing work—such as a theatre play, piece of writing, or movie；it copies selective features such as diction, style, and form, but changes or exaggerates other features for humorous or compelling (引人入胜的) effect.
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The following well-written sentences containing parodies were collected from Chinese students' writings.
(1) Where there are air and water, there is life.Where there are men and women, there is love.
(2) No creativity, no progress.
(3) One is never too late to make a change in his life.
(4) To live or not to live on campus-that's the question.
(5) Curiosity is the mother of creativity.
(6) A walk after a meal every day keeps the doctor away.
(7) Going to bed early and getting up early keep the doctor away.
(8) All roads lead to lifelong learning.
Ⅴ.Transferred epithet (移就). Transferred epithet is a figure of speech in which the epithet (修饰语) is transferred from the appropriate noun to modify another to which it does not really belong.
(1) She wrote me a very sympathetic letter.
(2) The whole family spent an anxious night.
(3) She is a 15-year-old girl with thick black hair and forgiving eyes.
(4) After the concert, I was in such a good mood that I couldn't just return to my lonely hotel room.
(5) An absent-minded moment of his hand caused the cup to fall.
(6) Airports are sad places.
(7) They pointed their hesitant rifles at the man.
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The following well-written sentences containing transferred epithets were collected from Chinese students' writings.
(1) During the week-long National Day holiday, Beijing turns into a cheerful city.
(2) I'll never forget my parents' tolerant smiles when I made a mistake years ago.
Ⅵ.Antithesis (对比或对照). Antithesis is a figure of speech where con-trasting words or ideas are deliberately (刻意地) arranged in balanced structural forms to achieve emphasis.
(1) A gentleman should be slow in word but prompt in action.
(2) They were born in the United States to parents who had emigrated from Korea with little money in their pockets but big dreams of a better life in their hearts.
(3) Solitude is a good place to visit but a poor place to stay.
(4) We've learned to rush, but not to wait；we have higher incomes, but lower morals.
(5) The spoken word dies, but the written word lives on.
(6) Stuff today and starve tomorrow.
(7) In prosperity our friends know us；in adversity we know our friends.
(8) Life is made up of opposites.At this very moment a baby is born, and an old woman is dying, a young couple have fallen in love, and someone is broken with grief.
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The following well-written sentences containing antithesis were collected from Chinese students' writings.
(1) High scores, low ability.
(2) I'm confident in my studies but frustrated by love.
(3) To lose weight, I will eat less chocolate and do more exercise every day.
(4) Dreams are soap bubbles which will be broken in the end；dreams are wings which help us fly in an imaginary world freely.
(5) Today, job offers are few, but job-hunters are numerous.
(6) Physical beauty stays only for a while, but inner beauty lasts forever.
Ⅶ.Rhetorical repetition (语形反复). Rhetorical repetition is a figure of speech in which a particular word, a phrase, a subordinate clause, or even an entire sentence is deliberately repeated to serve the purposes of emphasis and cohesion.
ⅰ.语形反复的分类
1.首语反复
首语反复是指同一词语连续出现在两个或两个以上的短语、分句或句子的开头。
(1) Early sow, early mow.
(2) We all laugh.We all hurt.We all make mistakes.We all dream.That's life.
2.尾语反复
尾语反复是指同一词语连续出现在两个或两个以上的短语、分句或句子的末尾。
(1) One cannot talk well, study well, or write well if one cannot think well. (Virginia Woolf)
(2) Lincoln recognized worth (价值) in the common people；he lovedthe common people；he fought for the common people；and he died for the common people.
3.同句首尾反复
同句首尾反复是指在一个句子的开头和末尾重复使用同一词语。
(1) Facts are facts. (事实不容否认。)
(2) Then was then and now is now.
(3) A promise isa promise.
(4) For most of us, good enough is good enough.
4.尾首反复
尾首反复是指后一个句子或短语的开头重复前一句子句尾的单词或短语。
(1) True words are not fine-sounding；fine-sounding words are not true. (信言不美, 美言不信。老子)
(2) Later, Beethoven went completely deaf, so deaf that he could not hear even the stormiest parts of his exciting music.
(3) A proper attitude is most important in order for two people to achieve a beautiful and stable marriage-amarriage filled with love and happiness.
(4) This is a great victory, a great victory without parallel in the history.
(5) The King was bad tempered because he was often ill.He was often ill because he ate and drank too much.
(6) No person is born arrogant；arrogance must be taught.
5.倒置反复
以AB顺序出现的两个词语在复现时其顺序变成了BA。
(1) Health without wealth is preferable to wealth without health.
(2) A brother may not be a friend, but a friend will always be a brother.
(3) An optimist laughs to forget, but a pessimist forgets to laugh.
(4) Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.
(5) The purpose of life is a life of purpose.
(6) Some would reject every philosophy, but that rejection is itself a philosophy.
(7) It's better to make friends fast than to make fast friends.
(8) Love is not a matter of counting the years but making the years count.
6.相同句式反复
(1) It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing.It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.
(2) Our senses can grasp nothing that is extreme.Too much noise deafens us；too much light dazzles us；too much distance or too much proximity impedes vision；too much length or too much brevity of discourse obscures it.
ⅱ.语形反复的功能
1.强调功能
(1) It was an old, old story, but it was new to her.
(2) After all, you've been taught to believe that London is the city of fog! Please, please, please, get this misconception out of your system now!
(3) With your health, intelligence, and youth, you should never think of failure, never.
(4) I tell students that there is no one“right”way to get ahead—that each of them is a different person, starting from a different point and bound for a different destination.
(5) I might say that success is won by three things: first, effort；second, more effort；third, still more effort.
(6) “I was demoted and demoted and demoted, ”says Betty Whelan of how her depression affected her job.
(7) He landed in New York in mid-winter, without a job, without money, without a friend.
(8) You can be so proud that, from now on, it will be unremarkable (司空见惯) for a woman to win primary state victories, unremarkable to have a woman in a close race to be our nominee, unremarkable to think that a woman can be the president of the United States.And that is truly remarkable, my friend. (Hillary Rodham Clinton)
2.衔接功能
(1) A more recent finding is the effect of automobile and truck exhaust fumes on children's intelligence.These exhaust fumes are the greatest source of lead pollution in cities.
(2) We attended what were then private schools and received a solid (良好的) education.This education continued for many of us at universities in Britain, Canada and the U.S., where we obtained bachelor's, master's and even doctoral degrees.
(3) We should conserve fossil fuels on behalf of our descendants as well as ourselves.Those descendants will curse us if we leave them without abundant sources of light and heat.
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The following well-written sentences containing rhetorical repetitions are collected from Chinese students' writings.
(1) Rich in knowledge, rich in life.
(2) Please believe: better environment, better life.
(3) I love my students；I love my school；I love education；I will devote all my life to this career.
(4) My childhood is a cheerful time, a bitter time, and a memorable time.
(5) Under stress, some people can't eat well, sleep well, or study well.
(6) Dreams are not just dreams.
(7) Don't be afraid of failure；failure is the mother of success.
(8) Our society needs honesty, and honesty is the most important to a person.
(9) Money cannot buy love, but love needs money.
(10) People should not live to make money but make money to live.
(11) If I love English, English will love me.
(12) For a country, education is power； for a family, education is hope； for an individual, education is treasure.
(13) Music is an eternal topic for me.To the stranger I meet for the first time, I talk about music；to my close friends, I talk about music.When I am happy, I talk about music；when I am upset, I still talk about music.
(14) Today, we can watch movies on the Internet；we can read books on the Internet；we can do e-commerce on the Internet；and we can make friends on the Internet.
(15) I wish I could go to England to feel its conservativeness, to France to feel its romance, to America to feel its humor, to Spain to feel its craziness.
(16) To be a good teacher, we should learn some advanced teaching ideas；to be a good teacher, we should improve our teaching skills；to be a good teacher, we should cooperate with students.
(17) To survive, we must work；to work well, we must study；to study, we need money；to make money, we have no time to study.Life is so hard.
(18) Now I only know 3000 English words, so I have a long, long way to go.
(19) To study English well, I need to practice, practice, and practice.
(20) To keep your position, work hard! To get a pay raise, work hard! To get promoted, work hard!
Practice 7-1-1
Write a sentence using any of the above-mentioned figures of speech.Answers will vary.