基础英语写作考试用英语写作修辞手法.docx

1、基础英语写作考试用英语写作修辞手法Simile 1)As cold water is to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. (Proverbs 25the Bible) 2)He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow. (George Eliot) 3)He arose joint by joint, as a carpenters rule opens, and beat the dust from his clothes. (The

2、 Cop and the Anthem) 4) Dellas beautiful hair fell about her, rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters. 5)The ruby shall be redder than a red rose, and the sapphire shall be as blue as the great sea. (Oscar Wilde) 6)A man without knowledge is like a house without foundation. 7)Air to us i

3、s what water is to fish. 8)Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. 9)Wisdom is to the mind what health is to the body.Metaphor 1)Lifes but a walking shadow, a poor player. (Shakespeare, Macbeth) 2)If music be the food of love, play on. (Shakespeare, Twelfth Night) 3)Some books are to be

4、 _, others to be _, and some few to be _ and _. (Francis Bacon, Of Studies) 4)All the worlds a stage, And all men and women merely players; They have their exits and entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages (Shakespeare As You Like It) 5)He was strangled in the

5、net of gossip. 6)His life became a whirlwind of design meetings, client conferences, and last-minute decisions.The Use of Simile and MetaphorTry to be idiomaticspend money like wateras American as apple pieas strong as a horsework like horsesas stupid as a gooseas dry as sawdust(wet) like a drowned

6、rata black sheepfish in the airPersonification 1)The ship sailed into the teeth of the hurricane. 2)The wind whistled through the trees. The wind was moaning through the trees. 3)If not always in a hot mood to smash, the sea is always stealthily ready for a drowning. (Joseph Conrad) 4)The sky rejoic

7、es in the mornings birth. (Wordsworth Resolution and Independence) Examples made by some students: 5)The rose blushes in the morning breeze. 6)The leaves are trembling in the wind. 7)Please water the thirsty flowers. 8)Look at the smiling moon. How bright it is!Metonymy Metonymy is a figure of speec

8、h which involves the substitution of the name of one thing for that of another. In other words, it involves a “change of name”; the substituted name suggests the thing meant. 1)He must have been spoiled from the cradle. 2)You can get a good cup at Blacks caf. 3)The whole town went out to welcome him

9、. 4) Sword and cross in hand, the European conquerors fell upon the continent of America. 5)The pen is mightier than the sword. Grey hair should be respected. We are reading Dickens/listening to Beethoven. I very much like to buy an iPhone, only my purse does not allow me that luxury. 6He was on the

10、 bottle for 5 years. hit the bottle 7Her heart ruled her head. 8Whitehall refused to confirm the reports. 9the Pentagon 10Oval Office; (Capitol) Hill; Madison Avenue; Fleet Street The soldiers swore to fight for the hearth and the altar.Unchecked violence has already dulled the luster of the Big App

11、le. The daunting task before its leaders is to prevent it from rotting to the core. bar Reasons for its wide useSynecdoche Synecdoche involves the substitution of the part for the whole, or the whole for the part. Some experts also use synecdoche to refer to the substitution between the abstract and

12、 the concrete. The part for the whole 1)They counted 50 sails in the harbor. 2)He paid the workers $5 per head. 3)Yet there were some stout hearts who attempted resistance. (Ceril Scott Forester)They seek office, not to be useful to the state, but for the loaves and fishes. The whole for the part; t

13、he material for the thing made 1)The birds sang to welcome the smiling year. 2)The doctor cut me open and took out the appendix. 3)She was dressed in silks. 4)Cotton suits you. The abstract for the concrete All the rank came out to see the sight. The concrete for the abstract She allowed the mother

14、to be overruled by the judge and declared her own son guilty. He has a smooth/ silver / evil/ rough/ sharp/ acid/ civil/ glib/ bitter/ bad/ wicked/ long/ oily tongue. have/ be a big mouth a crude-mouthed guy sweet tooth Overstatement 1)Belinda smiled, and all the world was gay. (Alexander Pope) 2)Fo

15、r she was beautifulher beauty made the bright world dim, (Percy Bysshe Shelley: The Witch of Atlas) 3)Hamlet: I loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quality of love, make up my sum. 4)You always make the same mistake. I have warned you 1000 times. 5)Its ages since we met

16、last time. 6)No book in the world is more difficult than this linguistic book. Reading it is absolute torture. 7)After TEM4, I could sleep for a year. 8)From his mouth flowed speech sweeter than honey. 9)I beg a thousand pardons. 10)Polly, I love you. You are the whole world to me, and the moon and

17、the stars and the constellations of outer space. Thanks a million. (v) Thanks a billion. (x)Understatement Traditionally it is divided into litotes and meiosis. Litotes is understatement by the use of negatives. 1)The face wasnt a bad one; it had what they called charm. (John Galsworthy) 2)That was

18、no mean achievement. 3)But to Darwin this was no light/ no laughing matter. 4)I know he is no fool. 5)I lost not a little over cards. 6)This piece of work is nothing to be proud of. Meiosis is understatement without the use of negatives. Instead, it uses expressions like a little, a bit, kind of, so

19、rt of, almost, hardly, scarcely, etc. 1)The little boy broke a vase and was a little upset. 2)The girl is a bit slow for her age. 3)He was a little too previous in making the decision.Irony Irony is the use of words to mean the opposite of what they seem to mean on the surface. 1)This hard-working b

20、oy seldom reads over an hour every week. 2)It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in ones pocket. 3)Robbing an old widow of her money was certainly a noble act. 4)The child picked up the spectacles and put them on. “Now you look as wise as an owl,” said his father

21、 affectionately. Oxymoron Oxymoron is a contradiction in terms, a compressed paradox, formed by the joining of 2 contrasting or contradictory terms. 1)The governments response to the report has been a deafening silence. 2)Barbara - who declines interviews but is said to have loved the Barbie doll -

22、may be the most famous unknown figure on the planet. 3)The Poverty of Affluence: Choosing Our Success -When Robert Reich noticed that work was costing him his personal life, he stepped down as U. S. Secretary of Labor to reflect on what “success” really means. Different forms of oxymoron: 1)adj.+n.

23、careful carelessness, orderly chaos, tearful joy, honest thief, sweet torment/pain, thunderous silence, jarring concord, proud humility, luxurious poverty, noble lie, cold welcome, a generous miser, an enlightened despot 2)adj.+adj. cold pleasant manner, poor rich guys, bitter-sweet memories, bad go

24、od news 3)ad.+adj. mercifully fatal, falsely true, splendidly alone, disagreeably pleasant laugh 4)v.+ad. hasten slowly, shine darkly, groan loudly 5)n.+n. a love-hate relationship 6)v-ing+n. a living death, loving hateEuphemism A euphemism is a word chosen for its inoffensiveness to substitute for

25、one considered harsh or indelicate. stupid/mentally retarded: He is a bit slow for his age.slow; simple; simple-minded; innocent; naive; not all there; empty-headed; ones thick head; dull; dumb; all thumbs; underachiever poor/penniless: (be) hard up; in reduced circumstances; badly off; in a (bad) s

26、pot; financially challenged; the havenots; the needy; underprivileged; deprived; disadvantaged; feel the pinch old age old age: getting on (in years); past ones prime; feeling ones age; be advanced in years; an advanced age; second childhood; the veterans; elderly; golden ager; experienced; hardened

27、; seasoned; weathered “I respect John McCain for his half-century of service to this country. But he is on the wrong side of history right now.” dismiss/discharge/fire lay off; release; give/get the walking ticket; give/get the sack; sack; downsize; get a pink slip; idle; redundancy General Electric

28、 is ready to idle 75000 according to Business Week Online. (Time, 2001) I regret having to make so many staff redundant. in debt: in difficultiesdole: relief; welfare; benefit(s); entitlement death penalty: capital punishment lie: tell a fairy story/ tale grave (noun) We have come to dedicate a port

29、ion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. (Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address) The functions of euphemismAlliteration This device is extremely popular with both poets and writers. In this device the same consonant sound is repeat

30、ed at intervals in the initial position of words. A. a feature of tongue-twisters She sells sea-shells on the seashore. A big bowl was broken by Barbara. Round the rocks runs a river. Down the drive dashed dashing Dan. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper prepared by his parents and put them

31、in a big paper plate. B. a rhetorical device in literature 1)And sings a solitary song, That whistles in the wind. (Wordsworth) 2)Freedom is not given free to any who ask, liberty is not born of the Gods. She is a child of the people, born in the very height and heat of battle (F. Norris) C. in proverbial and idiomatic expressionswax and wane; think thrice and then act, look before you leap; now or never; in weal and woe; better safe than sorry; go to rack