11.

1 Comparison
(Simile)(Metaphor)

as, like, as if, as though

1The Red Man has ever fled the approach of the White Man, as the morning mist flees
before the morning sun. (Chief Seattle, Reply to the U.S. Government)
(
)
2Today is fair. Tomorrow may be overcast with clouds. My words are like the stars that
never change. ()

3)

Phone lines and radio and television stations were down.. It seemed to the outside world
as if Anchorage had disappeared. (TV Series: Alaskan Earthquake)

4He burst into a high-pitched laugh, as though hed said something funny. (
COBUILD

5
()
When the shadow of the old banyan would become more distinct and clearer, it was
really like an old man on top of the hill, greeting us at our return. (
)
1

Water should be quiet like a mirror so that the small fish and algae couldnt hide in it
and people could appreciate their reflection in it. And how natural it would be!
asas
as white as snow
as cold as ice
as blind as an owl
as cheap as dirt
as busy as a bee
as beautiful as the sun
asas

as clear as day
as clear as a bell
as clean as a whistle
as bold as brass
as black as ones hat
as bald as a coot

be, become, turn into

7) Now if death be of such a nature, I say that to die is gain; for eternity is then only a single
night. (Socrates, Apology)

8) Men in great place are thrice servants: servants of the sovereign or state; servants of fame;
and servants of business. Francis BaconOf Great Place from THE ESSAYS

9) Three years jungle life had turned him into a wild beast.

10) We duly turn up. And then, oh then, what a gulf yawns! We stretch our arms vainly
across it. We have utterly lost touch. (Max Beerbohm, Seeing People Off)

11)
()
Baseness is a passport for the base,
Honour an epitaph for the honourable.
()
12)

Everything had changed. Her most familiar Wencheng City had changed into a dead
city. Her old father had changed into a ghost-man who was living in hell.
10 12

13) She is a fox..

14) He is a weathercock.

15) Shes a nightingale when she sings.

fox 13 He
She

14 weathercock

15

15

16He dashed out like an arrow.

17He is a goose.

11.2 Metonymy

1Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?

chains
John spent many years in chains before
he saw his family again. Chains

2Have I in conquest stretch'd mine arm so far

To be afeard to tell greybeards the truth?
(Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)

3Only one thing will solve this casethe little grey cells of the brain. (Agartha Christie,
Three Act Tragedy)

4
What they could not solve with words, they solved with bloodshed.
2 greybeards
3 the little grey cells
of the brain 4

words bloodshed

11.3 Personification

a smiling moon
a crying cityto strangle justice

1Yonder sky that has wept tears of compassion upon my people for centuries untold, and
which to us appears changeless and eternal, may change. (Chief Seattle, Reply to the U.S.
Government)

2To its residents, Vesuvius was a benefactor not an enemy. But without any warning,
Mount Vesuvius roared to life.

3He had taken rank at a bound, waked up a national glory. Henry JamesThe Death of
the Lion

4And certainly, whenever the wind blew, the Reed made the most graceful curtseys. (Oscar
Wilde, The happy Prince)

5Here, in the Palace, the air was close and heavy, but in the forest the wind blew free, and
the sunlight with wandering hands of gold moved the tremulous leaves aside. (Oscar
Wilde, The Birthday of the Infant)

6Crime burst in like a flood; modesty, truth, and honour fled. 100 Myths of Greece and
Rome

But windows induce part of the sky into the four-walled and one-roofed room for man to
utilize it and harness it as we harness a wild horse into domestic animal. (
)
8

The fields are immaculate;

The land has cleared its debts;
Grain is stored in granary, soil rests;
Nature sighs, a cool refreshing breeze.
()

9) The ship sadly caught fire and the plans to make her a floating museum died in the
smoldering embers.

10)
Spring is drawing near.
9 shipplans

10
Spring is walking towards
us.

11.4 (Hyperbole)

1)At 'em, all hands - all hands!he roared, in a voice of thunder. (Robert Louis Stevenson,
Treasure Island)

2Yes, young men, Italy owes to you an undertaking which has merited the applause of the
universe. (Guiseppe Garibaldi, To His Soldiers)

3We must work to live, and they give us such mean wages that we die. (Oscar Wilde, The
Young King)

4Nay, he saidyes you diddeny it if you can, that you would not have confessed the
truth, though master had cut you to pieces. (Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, A
Foundling)

Floating along the river and watching its two banks, your only feeling is that the
thousand mountains are dyed green, and every peak and ridge is growing in different
shades of green. Aha, once in the Fuchun River even our eyes become green, too.
()
6

So that brothers shoulders

May life the earth, arouse millions of suns
()

7) She is a girl in a million.

8)
Mother said to Xiao Ming, If you should fail again, I would surely teach you a lesson.
7 in a million

8
break your neck

11.5 Euphemism

to be no more

to be in a delicate
condition

to pass away die

He wont make it
Seems he wont survive tomorrow morning

1On the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker
ceased to think. He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came
back we found him in his armchair, peacefully gone to sleepbut forever. Friederich
Engels, Speech at the Graveside of Karl Marx
3 14

2You would no doubt wish me to make some slight allusion to this tragic domestic
affliction next Sunday.

(Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest)

3) The doctor was fiercely condemned by some for what he referred to as helping people in
dying.

4)
It is said that he has just come out of that place.
5)
Something happened to him on his way back home.
1 ceased to think gone to sleepbut forever

2 this tragic domestic affliction

3 helping in dying
4 that place prison
5
8

somethingmishap

May I go to the bathroom?

May I use the facilities?
Im going to my private office.

private
office

6) He put the dog to sleep.

7)
He died before her.
He died first.
11.6 Apostrophe

1And love, young men, love and venerate the ideal. (Giuseppe Mazzini, To the Young Men
of Italy)

2O you kind gods,

Cure this great breach in his abused nature!
(Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King Lear)

3Exult, O shores! and ring, O bells! (Walt Whitman, O Captain! My Captain!)

While theres endless land,

While theres boundless sea,
Stallions, gallop!
White gulls, soar!
()
5

The remainder of snow, you are a proof of the ugly force that desperately attempts to
force itself upon the earth when it should retreat. You are also a symbol of the
impossible escape from its doomed fate.

11.7 Irony

1He stated a truth, and did it in such a pleasant way, and salved over my sore spot so gently
and so healingly, that I was rather glad I had committed the crime, for the sake f the
letter. (Mark Twain, Unconscious Plagiarism)

2 Had I interfered in the manner which I admit, and which I admit has been fairly proved
(for I admire the truthfulness and candour of the greater portion of the witnesses who
have testified in this case)had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the
intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their friendseither father, mother,
brother, sister, wife, or children, or any of that classand suffered, and sacrificed what I
have in this interference, it would have been all right; and every man in this court would
have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment. (John Brown, On Being
Sentenced to Be Hanged)

10

3You gave her good advice, and broke her heart. That was the beginning of your
reformation. (Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray)

4You and the girls may go, or you may send them by themselves, which perhaps will be
still better, for as you are as handsome as any of them, Mr. Bingley might like you the
best of the party. (Jane Austin, Pride and Prejudice)

5
So you have caught a cold? You turned a deaf ear to me when I asked you to put on
more clothes, and I thought you were really not afraid of the cold.
6)
When she heard that she was fired, she said angrily, Thats great!

7)
Look at what you have done!
8)

The French and the English were so ardent about art that they sent their armies to search
for invaluable paintings and sculptures all around the world.

11.8 Parallelism

1Voltaire waged the splendid kind of warfareThe war of thought against matter, the war
of reason against prejudice, the war of the just against the unjust(Victor Hugo,
Voltaire)

2Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. (Francis Bacon, Of Studies)

3Doubt thou the stars are fire;

Doubt that the sun doth move;
11

Doubt truth to be a liar;

But never doubt I love.
Shakespeare, Hamlet

4) They know their underground labor is a game of chance; a roll of the dice; a spin of the
wheel. TV SeriesFire in the Hole! Mining Disasters

5)

Here, he is no match for a street light, no match for an imitation of a vase4 in the shop
window, no match for a disorderly smeared oil painting on the wall, no match for the
purple skirt sweeping by, no match for the blue-circled eyes and blood-red lipped
decorations, and still no match for the little dog pulled by the hand of a lady.

()
I dont believe the sky is blue;
I dont believe the thunders roar;
I dont believe that dreams are false;
I dont believe that death has no revenge.
()

7) Theyre rich; theyre famous; theyre surrounded by the worlds most beautiful women.
They are the worlds top fashion designers and trend-setters. (TV Series: Fashion at Top)

12

8)

In Taiwan, every time I thought about my hometown, I would no doubt think of that
nameless small hill and that old banyan tree. I would then think of my little kite on top
of that ancient giant tree.
11.9 Question and Answer

1Shall I compare thee to a summers day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
(Shakespeare, Sonnet i8)

2And who is it that deceives the state? Surely the man who speaks not what he thinks.
(Demosthenes, On the Crown)

3But has the last word been said? Is all hope to be lost? Is the defeat final? No! (Charles
De Gaulle, Has the Last Word Been Said?)

4But the enemies of tyrannywhither does their path tend? To the tomb, and to
immortality! What tyrant is my protector? To what faction do I belong? Yourselves!
(Maximilien Robespierre, His Last Speech)

Do you know who is the best-known person in China?

Talking of this person, his name is known to everyone in every corner of the country.
6

Why should Jianhua be regarded as inferior to Wen? Just because he didnt have a
doctors degree!
11.10 Rhetoric Question
13

1Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there
any better or equal hope in the world? In our present differences, is either party without
faith of being in the right? (Abraham Lincoln, His First Inaugural Address)

2Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so
dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? (Patrick
Henry, Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death)

3Cant you just leave me alone?

4
Your heart was bitter in the past, so how could you sense the fragrance of the red leaves
then?
5

Who would shake a hand stained with comrades blood?

()
11.11 Antonomasia

1 Upon my word, Basil, I didn't know you were so vain; and I really can't see any
resemblance between you, with your rugged strong face and your coal-black hair, and
this young Adonis, who looks as if he was made out of ivory and rose-leaves. (Oscar
Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray)
:

14

2 Poor Charlie! Of all the girls in the world, he should have fallen in love with the
daughter of a Judas!
:

3 Her friends wondered how she could get along so well with this modern Don Quixote.
.
4
: In our school she is called Cousin Lina girl famous for her sentimental and
delicate beauty.
In our school she is called Cousin Lin. (Note: the heroine of the famous
Chinese Qing Dynasty novel the Red Mansion Dreams by Cao Xueqin, a girl
famous for her sentimental and delicate beauty.)
She is famous for her sentimental and delicate beauty in our school.
5
:No sooner had he entered the gate than he heard a voice saying, Here comes
the Qin Hui (Note: the chief minister of the Southern Song Dynasty in ancient
China, also a famous traitor to his country).
No sooner had he entered the gate than he heard a voice saying, Here comes
the traitor.
1 Adonis

2 Judas

3 Don Quixote

5
15

16

I.

1. as stupid as an owl
2.

as cross as two sticks

3.

as like as two peas

4.

as nimble as a squirrel

5.

as drunk as a lord

6.

like a hen with one chick

7.

like a hundred of bricks

8.

like a shot

9.

like greased lightning

10. like old boots

II.
1.

She was like a rosebud bursting into flower.

2.

His soul struggled like a sparrow held in the hand, with little frightened gasps and a quick
palpitation of the heart.

3.

The birds were flying about and twittering with delight, and the flowers were looking up
through the green grass and laughing.

4.

It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.

5.

It is possible to run a primitive society without a penal code; why not a cultured society?

6.

To what is the increase of population due? In part, I suppose, to a general increase in

prosperity.

7.

I am sick to death of cleverness. Everybody is clever nowadays. You can't go anywhere

without meeting clever people. The thing has become an absolute public nuisance. I wish to
goodness we had a few fools left.

8.

The eighty-four years which this man lived span the interval between the Monarchy at its
apogee and the Revolution at its dawn. When he was born, Louis XIV still reigned; when he
died, Louis XVI already wore the crown; so that his cradle saw the last rays of the great
throne, and his coffin the first gleams from the great abyss.

9.

He conquered violence by a smile, despotism by sarcasm, infallibility by irony, obstinacy by

perseverance, ignorance by truth.

10.

Normans! bravest of nations! I have no doubt of your courage, and none of your victory,
which never by any chance or obstacle escaped your efforts.

11.

Her mother is perfectly unbearable. Never met such a GorgonI don't really know what a
Gorgon is like, but I am quite sure that Lady Bracknell is one. In any case, she is a monster,
without being a myth, which is rather unfair.

12.

Today we are part of the vast Allied forcea force composed of flesh and blood and steel
17

and spirit.
III.
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

IV.
1. Certainly, the first searchlight that waved above London like a sword was wonderful. Later
on, London sent forth a hundred such lights. She spent her evenings like a mathematician
drawing weird geometrical figures on the darkness. She became the greatest of the Futurists,
all cubes and angles. Sometimes she seemed like a crab lying on its back and waving a
multitude of inevitable pincers. Sometimes she seemed to be fishing in the sky with an
immense dragnet of light. Sometimes, on misty-moisty nights, the searchlights lit up the
sluggish clouds with smudges of gold. It was like a decoration of water-lilies on long stems of
light.
2.

V. IV
18

19