高英修辞解释&重要句子解释

Hyperbole

Anticlimax

Parallelism

No one can be perfectly free till all are free; no one can be perfectly moral till all are moral; no one can be perfectly happy till all are happy。

Metaphor

Metonymy借喻，转喻

借喻不直接说出所要说的事物，而使用另一个与之相关的事物名称。

Lend me your ears, please. 请听我说。

a complete Shakespeare 莎士比亚全集

Synecdoche 换喻

换喻主要借助于密切的关系与联想，而提喻则是借助于部分相似。提喻通常是用局部来代替整体，间或也有整体来代替局部，局部与整体之间总有相似之处。

Synecdoche：

White House （美国总统）

From the cradle to grave（从生到死）Metonymy

It was a close contest. In the end, China won. （整体代替局部，用China代表中国队）

Many hands make light work. (局部代替整体，用hand表示干活的人)

I had the muscle, and they made money out of it. 我有力气，他们就用我的力气赚钱。Parody仿拟

Rome was not built in a day, nor in a year.

Alliteration

Simile

Understatement

Litotes反述曲言

它使用明抑暗扬来否定相反的，是一种双重否定

不说某事物的诱人的，相反却说它是“不是不诱人

…while he was not dumber than an ox he was not any smarter

That was not useless to the warrior now

Repetition

是连续或间断重复使用同一单词、短语或者句子

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow

Analogy

Rather than a figure of speech, an analogy is more of a logical argument.

The presenter of an analogy will often demonstrate how two things are alike by pointing out shared characteristics, with the goal of showing that if two things are similar in some ways, they are similar in other ways as well.

A is to b what c is to d

Euphemism

关于死、性

装逼

Irony

Unit 1

…you will have no reason to think about the merely statistical fact of the number of years you have already lived, still less of the probable brevity of your future.

You should not think about the number of how many years you have lived and how little time you have left.

If this is true it should be forgotten, and if it is forgotten it will probably not be true. If it is true, then for your own sake, you should forget it; if you are able to forget the “truth”, then it may not be true.

Sucking vigor from its vitality

Deriving energy from the young children who are full of life

Young men who have reason to fear that they will be killed in battle may justifiably feel bitter in the thought that they have been cheated of the best things that life has to offer.

Young men who fear that they might be killed in the battle have reason to feel sad

because they might be deprived of the best things, their time to live that is ahead of them. Unit 2

The whole idea of a typical letter is a will-o'-the -wisp. (P. 3)

The thought of there being a typical letter is unrealistic.

Even the dictionary maker fortunately can't make it real to himself in advance

Even the fortunate dict maker can know exactly how much work he must do before setting to do it.

Dr. Johnson had earned the right, as we have not, to call the lexicographer "a harmless drudge.

Dr established his authority in compiling dictionary so he has the right to describe that lexicographer is a contributive role who works painstakingly.

He has to because unless he gets a move on he will fall further and further behind, while the dictionary is taking longer to record linguistic events than they take to happen. (P. 4)

New words and expression constantly find their way into speech while the dict requires much longer time to record, so if they fail to keep up, they will lag behind more and more.

What goes for subscribers goes, too, for the publishers, who do hope for some return on, or at least of, their money. (P. 4)

What the subscribers wanted was also what the publishers wanted, who wanted to see the book come out or earn money.

So there have to be schedules and anxiety and resentment and nagging, in the race against time, time whose pace never falters. (P. 4)

In order to keep up with the time, which will never slow down, they had to have a tight schedule of compiling, which made them anxious and upset.

He returned to school-teaching and lived a 72-hour day for the rest of his life. For the invitation to edit what became the O. E. D. was one that he could not refuse.(P. 8)

He went back to teach at a school and led a busy life because the OED is a tempting mission that he couldn’t decline.

Unusual in its etymological exactitude, in its strength and delicacy of definition and of

subdivision as each word lives and branches, it was more than unusual –it was unique – in the range, precision and organization of its illustrative quotations. (P. 9) This dictionary is unusual to an extent to become unique because it was complied etymologically precise, in detailed definition which covered the lives and branches of every word and quotations

Would he have acknowledged that one of the things providence did for him was mercifully to withhold a full sense of the task that was never to end for him

Would he admit that one of the things God did to him was not telling him that it would be great efforts being spent to finish his task?

he made himself indispensable to the other remarkable philologists of his day.

He made his way to be a remarkable philologist of his day.

He beavered and he badgered.

He worked hard and went deeply into his work.

No life can be grim in which a man so thoroughly, and with such justified satisfaction, knows himself in that he knows what he can work at. (P. 11)

No one’s life is tough as long as he completely knows what they can work at and works happily.

But he is unignorable, an Eminent Victorian such as we now realize is not to be sneered at.

He was too preeminent a person in the Victorian Era to be ignored or paid little attention to.

The uneventful dignity of his life makes for a biography which it would be odd to be thrilled by and which it would be insensitive not to be stirred by.

Although his life was ordinary, and people may not find it interesting to look into his life, his accomplishment was so great that people will be stunned.

Unit 3

but the price of alcohol and tobacco in my country has provided sufficient external causes for melancholy

And so you have to be content with dollars in stead of creative satisfaction”

So you have to work for money instead of working to satisfy your creative needs. Everything has to be flattened out except when the prejudices of the editor are concerned.

All the editors must compile in the same way and personal preferences are only allowed when the prejudices of the editor are respected.

who has just one drink too many is apt to lapse into lachrymose melancholy.

Who drink too much is inclined to become morose.

The one that goes least deep is the necessity for subservience in some large organization.

The superficial cause is that a person must comply with the rules from the large organization.

A life which is all principle is a life on rails.

Living a life strictly governed by principle is like a life on rails which you can’t control. Unit 6

Somebody can dish it out but they can't take it

Used to say that someone often criticizes other people, but does not like being criticized A variegated constellation of flecks, specks, and dots

The dots and spots were of different shapes and the whole cluster was brilliant

"C" and "L", in particular, were hard letters for him to find.

The Journalist never attended a college of liberal art, so it was difficult for him to find the letter C and L, standing for college and liberal arts.

Unit 7

Nothing is said, but a glance from one of the higher officials here strips you and quietly deposits your apparel in the dustbin. (P.1)

The tailors said nothing, but a glance from the tailors was like take off your clothes and quietly and carefully dispose of them into the dustbin.

It is still engaged in the old quest for perfection. (P.2

The tailors still undertake the old occupation of pursuing the perfection of clothes.

H e’s one of those gentlemen who’s a bit careless during the day. I shouldn’t wonder if he takes trouble at night

He was careless about his clothing in the daytime and I should convince myself that he will pay attention to it at night.

Their opinions, such as they are, seem to be those of most moderate sensible men, but even if they murmured that it was high time the Spanish Inquisition was established in this island, I should have to agree with them. (P.5)

Their opinions, though may be of little value, seem to come from a well-mannered and wise person; even when they said that the Spanish Inquisition should be built in this Britain, I should agree with them.

A long and intimate acquaintance with trousers has made him far more democratic and earthy. (P.5)

Because he frequently dealt with trousers, he became far more easygoing and modest. Nine tailors make a man

A tailor is so much more feeble that it would take nine to make a man of average stature and strength.

These mirrors go glimmering away into infinity.

The images reflected in the mirrors seem to be so stretching in a never-ending line

For them the smallest seam they sew can give thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.

The smallest seam can give rise to thoughts that causes you cry without tears.

Unit 8

Surely nothing in the astonishing scheme of life can have nonplused Nature so much as the fact that none of the females of any of the species she created really cared very much for the male, as such. (P.1

Among all the amazing settings of the nature of life, none is more bewildering than the fact that females of any species don’t care much about their counterparts.

She sat quietly enough until he was well into the middle of the thing, intoning with great ardor and intensity. (P. 8)

She sat quietly until he recited his way, with great passion and enthusiasm, to the middle of the poem.

The man had to go in for somersaults, tilting with lances, and performing feats of parlor magic to win her attraction.

The man has to showcase their skills and bravery or display his eloquence in order to attract the female’s attention

He is sitting pretty.

To be superior and in favorable position

Figured as putting any irony into their courtship

Produce an embarrassing Result

Condescend

Lower himself

Cut a fine figure

Have an impressive appearance

Nervous wrecks

Damaged nervous system

Cavemen stuff

Rude violent behavior in courtship