•1)As cold water is to a news from a far country. (Proverbs25—the 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 carpenter’s rule opens,and beat the dust from his clothes.(The Cop and the Anthem)•4)Della’s 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 beas blue as the great sea.(Oscar Wilde)•6)A man without knowledge is like a house without foundation.•7)Air to us is 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.•1)Life’s but a Macbeth)•2)If music be the food of love,play on.(Shakespeare,Twelfth Night)•3)Some books are to be___,others to be___,and some few to be___ and___.(Francis Bacon,Of Studies)•4)All the world’s 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 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 rata black sheepfish in the air•1)The ship•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 rejoices in the morning’s 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 is a 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 Black’s café.•3)The whole town went out to welcome him.•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.•6>He was on the bottle for5years.•hit the bottle•7>Her heart ruled her head.•8>Whitehall refused to confirm the reports.•9>the Pentagon•10>Oval 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 Apple.The daunting task before its leaders is to prevent it from rotting to the core.•bar•Reasons for its wide use•Synecdoche whole,or the whole for the part.Some experts also use synecdoche to refer to the substitution between the abstract and the concrete.•The part for the whole•1)They counted50sails in the harbor.•2)He paid the workers$5per 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;the 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 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•1)Belinda•2)For she was beautiful—her 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 you1000times.•5)It’s ages since we met 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 the stars and the constellations of outer space.•Thanks a million.(v)•Thanks a billion.(x)••Litotes is understatement by the use of negatives.•1)The face wasn’t a bad one;it had what they called charm.(John Galsworthy)•2)That was 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,sort 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•Irony is the use of words what they seem to mean on the surface.•1)This hard-working boy seldom reads over an hour every week.•2)It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one’s 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 affectionately.•••Oxymoron is a paradox,formed by the joining of2contrasting or contradictory terms.•1)The government’s response to the report has been a deafening silence.•2)Barbara---who declines interviews but is said to have loved the Barbie doll---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.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 good 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•A euphemism is to substitute for 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;one’s thick head;dull;dumb;all thumbs; underachiever•poor/penniless:•(be)hard up;in reduced circumstances;badly off;in a(bad)spot;financially challenged;the havenots;the needy;underprivileged; deprived;disadvantaged;feel the pinch•old age•old age:getting on(in years);past one’s prime;feeling one’s age;be advanced in years;an advanced age;second childhood;the veterans; elderly;golden ager;experienced;hardened;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 is ready to idle75000according 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 portion 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 euphemism•This device is In this device the same consonant sound is repeated 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 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 and ruin; bolt from the blue;give the devil his due;beat the band;burn one's boat/bridges;carry coals to NewcastleWaste not,want not.Practise what you preach.Bite the bullet!The darkest hour is the nearest dawn.I bet you’ll soon turn the tables.Sir,there is no royal road to learning.An empty sack cannot stand upright.•Proverbial and idiomatic expressions.•8)as bare as the back;as large as life;as blind as a bat;(as)bold as brass;(as)brisk as a bee;as brown as a berry;as busy as a bee;as clear as crystal;as close as a clam;(as)cool as a cucumber;as different as chalk from/and cheese;(as)fit as a fiddle;as good as gold; as green as grass;as hungry as a hawk/hunter;as plain as print;as pretty as picture;as proud as a peacock;as red as a rose;as right as rain;as slow as a snail;as still as a statue;as thick as thieves;as weak as water;(as)bright as a button•D.in ads and journalistic writings•1)(Titles of articles):Bye,Bye,Balanced Budget•2)For comfort,convenience,superb service and more flights to Japan—YOU CAN DEPEND ON US.Cathay Pacific•3)Over the years,Korea’s relationships with America have long seesawed between peace and peril.(The Times)•Application•She’s determined to win,by fair means or foul.•by hook or by crook•You shall judge a man by his foes as well as by his friends.(Joseph Conrad)•Above all,from trivial things to life philosophy,friends indisputably play an important role in influencing young adults.So it is critical for young adults to find true friends who will stand by them rain or shine. ___0402邵艳萍•Allusion is reference or events that the writer thinks are familiar to his readers.•Chief sources of English allusion:nursery rhymes,fairy tales,folk tales, legends,Greek and Roman mythology,Bible stories,parables,and the works of great writers•The House of the Seven Gables(Nathaniel Hawthorne)•Absalom,Absalom!(William Faulkner)•That expectation could prove the Achilles’heel of the project.(The Economist)•I learned a great many new words that day.I do not remember what they all were;but I do know that mother,father,sister,teacher were among them---words that were to make the world blossom for me,“like Aaron's rod,with flowers.”(Helen Keller,The Most Important Day in My•Aan adjective or descriptive phrase is transferred from the noun it should rightly modify to another which it does not really belong to.•Roosevelt listened with bright-eyed smiling attention.•Point out the transferred epithets in the following sentences.Though Hilary Clinton was frequently dogged by troubles for years,she always puts on a brave face in public.•She has very expensive taste(s)in clothes.•Hans shrugged his scornful shoulders.Throughout his trial he maintained a dignified silence.•He is not an easy poet.•Application•It was the end of my exhausting first day as tutor.•(0304Yu Cui)Tears quietly rolled down my cold face,only to leave two sad trails.•When I was in difficulties,she gave me an assuring/a reassuring hand.•Try to interpret the following expressions which consist of transferred epithet.•purposeless days;a murderous knife;angry fist;an understanding smile;a sympathetic look;nervous hours;sleepless/restless nights; cold shoulder;a sleepless bed•transferred epithet:association of contiguity •personification/metaphor/simile:association of similarity •metonymy/synecdoche:association of relatednesssynesthesia vs.transferred epithetTransference/empathy vs.transferred epithet。