1. 明 喻
SIMILE
1．定义
英语的明喻是英语中最常用、最简便的修辞格之一，在文学作品中尤其如此。它根据人们的联想，利用不同事物之间的相似点，借助比喻词(如like，as等)起连接作用，清楚地说明甲事物在某方面像乙事物
Rhetoric In Practice (《英文实用修辞学》)一书这样来解释明喻：
“A simile is an expressed 1ikeness.The simplest and most direct way of connoting an idea with something else is by means of using similes．Simile is the neuter singular of the Latin adjective ?similis,? meaning like.”
Simile(明喻)运用广泛，可借以状物、写景、抒情、喻理，使表达生动形象，明白易懂，新鲜有趣。
关于英语Simile，有两点须加以说明：
一、Simile(明喻)通常由三部分构成，即本体(tenor或subject)、
喻体(vehicle或reference)和比喻词(comparative word或indicator of resemblance)。可图示如下：
Marriage is like a beleaguered fortress: those who are without want to get in,
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↓ ↓ ↓
(tenor) (comparative word) (vehicle)
and those within want to get out. ( P. M. Quitard)
二、本体与喻体一般为两个不同事物(如属同类也应具不同性质或特征)，比喻方可成立。
例如：
① Peter is as tall as his father. ② Peter is as tall as a Maypole.
稍加分析可以看出，例①不算明喻，只是一个比较句，因为Peter及其father同属人类；而例②才是比喻句，因为Peter与Maypole分属人与物。
2. 引导明喻的比喻词(comparative words)
( 1 ) 介词as，like，of等。
As
Beauty is as summer fruits, which are easy to corrupt and cannot last?( Bacon: Of Studies ) 美者犹如夏日蔬果，易腐难存?
Overhead the hollow stretch of whitish cloud shutting out the sky was as a tent which had the who1e earth as its floor。 ( Thomas Hardy )
头顶上方，夺据了天际上无尽空荡的白云，宛如高悬的帐篷一般，把整个荒原做了它的地面。
Out of the sleeves came strong bony wrists and hands gnarled knotted and hard as peach branches. ( John Steinbeck )
从袖子里伸出一双瘦骨嶙峋的大手，像桃树枝一样，瘤节盘错，坚硬粗壮。
I wandered lonely as a cloud. ( W. Wordsworth: The Daffodils )
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我像一朵浮云独自漫游。 They are as like as two peas. 他们两个长得一模一样。
His young daughter looks as red as a rose.
他的小女儿面庞红得象朵玫瑰花。
I passed and repassed the house, and stopped and listened at the door; all was dark and silent as the grave. ( B．Shaw)
我在那房子前面走了几趟，并在门口停下来听了听；一片漆黑，沉寂得像座坟墓。 Love goes towards love, as schoolboys from their books; but love from love, towards school with heavy looks．
( William Shakespeare) 赴情人的约会，像学童抛开书一样； 和情人分别，像学童板着脸上学堂。
英语里有不少含有明喻的成语，其结构为as+形容词+as+名词。例如： as firm as a rock 坚如磐石
as light as a feather 轻如鸿毛
as close as an oyster 守
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口如瓶
as mute as a fish 噤若寒蝉
as strong as horse 强壮如牛
as cool as a cucumber 泰然自若
as sober as a judge 十分清醒
as sure as a gun 千真万确
Like
Paris is a morgue without you; before I knew you, it was Paris, and I thought it heavens; but now it is a vast desert of desolation and loneliness. It is like the face of a clock, bereft of its hands. ( Sarah Bernhardt to Victorian Sardou )
没有你，巴黎成了一座陈尸所；我认识你之前，巴黎就是巴黎。我把它看成天堂；然而现在它变成了一片荒凉而寂寞的沙漠。它像一个没有时针、分针和秒针的钟面。
All that I had to show, as a man of letters, were these few tales and essays, which had blossomed out like flowers in the calm summer of my heart and mind. ( Hawthoren: The Old Manse )
作为一个作家，我所能贡献出来的只有这么几篇故事和散文，它们像我心头温和的夏天灿烂开放的花朵。
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He works 1ike a horse／beaver／Trojan／black.
他辛辛苦苦地干活。
They spent money like water.
他们挥金如土。
He talks like a book.
他老是文绉绉地说话。
He eats like a horse.
他吃得很多。
He smokes 1ike a chimney.
他抽烟很厉害。
Living without an aim is like sailing without a compass. ( John Ruskin ) 生活没有目标犹如航行没有指南针。
He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen from him to crow. ( George Eliot )
他这人就像一只骄傲的公鸡，以为太阳升起是为了它的啼叫。 Records fell like ripe apples on a windy day. ( E. B. White )
被打破的记录有如刮风天成熟的苹果纷纷坠落。 The staff member folded like an accordian.
这个工作人员就像合拢起来的手风琴似地—不吭声了。 My heart is like a singing bird Whose nest is on a watered shoot; My heart is like an apple-tree Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit; My heart is like a rainbow shell That paddles in a halcyon sea; My heart is gladder than all these
Because my love is come to me. ( Rossetti ) 我的心像只善歌的小鸟，
小巢建在轻拂水面的嫩枝上； 我的心像棵苹果树，
沉甸的果实把树梢压弯；
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