六级写作锦上添花

让英语修辞为你的四、六级写作锦上添花

短文(short essay)写作，即要求考生根据英文题目和三点汉语提纲(outline)完成一篇由三个自然段组成的短文，是我国大学英语四、六级考试写作部分最常见的题型之一。具体步骤如下:一、阅读英文题目和汉语提纲;二、将三点汉语提纲转化为三个英语的主题句(topic sentence);三、再根据主题展开进一步的论证、解释、说明。要想考出较为理想的成绩，其短文要切题(on topic)、表达思想清楚，文字通顺，连贯性(coherence)好，并基本上无语言错误。然而，以上的评分标准是对考生的一般要求，如果想要有上佳的表现，还可考虑在行文中适当地运用英语的常用修辞手法(figures of speech)。

下面首先介绍几种常用的英语修辞格。

1.明喻(Simile)

明喻是指将具有某种共同特征的两种不同事物加以对比，用另一种事物比喻所要说明的事物。从结构上看，明喻包括“本体”，“喻体”和“比喻词”。本体指被比喻的对象，喻体指用来做比喻的对象，比喻词用在本体和喻体之间起连接作用。常见的比喻词有like，just like，as if和as．．．as．．．等。例如:

(1) Life's like a play: It's not the length，but the excellence of the acting that matters.(人生就像一部戏:重要的不是长度，而是表演得是否精彩。)

(2) A divorce is just like an amputation: you survive，but there's less of you.(离婚就像一次截肢手术:你活下来了，但也失去了什么。)

(3) Just as water is the most important of liquids，so air is the most important gases.

(4) as flat as a pancake.

明喻还有一种较为复杂的表达形式，即使用“A+ be+ to+ B+ what(或as)+ C+ be+ to+ D”句型，表示“A与B的关系就如同C与D的关系一样”。请看例句:

(5) Air is to us what/as water is to fish.

(6) History is to the nation as memory is to the individual.

2.暗喻(Metaphor)

暗喻也是一种比喻，但它与明喻不同的是，明喻把本体和喻体说成是相似的，而暗喻不使用比喻词，直接就把本体说成是喻体。例如:

(1) A warm smile is the universal language of kindness.

(2) Nancy has the microwave smile that warms another person without heat.

(3) When it comes to explaining her failed policies，the mayor is a magician．

3.拟人(Personification)

拟人顾名思义就是把原本属于人的特性、品质、行为赋于其它有生命或无生命的事物。恰当地使用拟人手法，可使被描写的对象栩栩如生、活灵活现，很容易让读者产生共鸣。例如:

(1) The twentieth century saw a population boom never before experienced on our small planet.

(2) The trees are wearing their fall colors.

(3) Fashion wins．(时尚是赢家。)

4.仿拟(Parody)

仿拟是指有意模仿一些成语、谚语、名言、警句或俗语等，通过改动其中的部分词语，表达出一种新的思想。仿拟修辞的运用可给人们带来耳目一新、旧貌换新颜的感觉。例如:

5.移就(Transferred Epithet)

移就是把本来用于修饰甲事物的形容词用来修饰乙事物，通常是把修饰人的形容词用来修饰物。移就修辞格运用得当，可产生言简意丰的效果。例如:

(1) Where is my stupid camera?

在例(1)中，把用于形容人的词stupid放在了camera前面，看似违反常规，不合逻辑，但在具体语言环境中却恰到好处，能引起读者的丰富联想，即I'm so stupid that I can't remember where I put my camera.下面的例句也有异曲同工之妙，请细心品味:

(2) The skyscraper has a dizzy height，and you see it has150 floors.

(3) We had hoped to make the journey on foot; however，the bad weather prevented us from carrying out this ambitious project．

6.对比(Antithesis)

对比也称对照，是把两个结构相同或相似、意思相反或相对的词语并列在一起，以求得到一种均衡的形式美和强烈的对比效果。例如:

(1) He is physically weak，but mentally sound.

(2) They were born in the United States to parents who had emigrated from Korea with little money in their pockets but big dreams of a better life in their hearts.

要想写出含有修辞格的句子并非可望不可即之事。下面的成功例句就是我国学生通过欣赏和模仿而写出来的。

(1) A life without dreams is just like a spring without flowers.(明喻)

(2) A dream is to a person what wings are to a bird.(明喻)

(3) Every day，time is a delicious cake for me，but I don't know exactly how to cut it.(暗喻)

(4) The town wears gorgeous clothes for the coming holiday.(拟人)

(5) One is never too late to make a change in his life.(仿拟)

(6) Curiosity is the mother of creativity.(仿拟)

(7) One is never too late to make a change in his life.(仿拟)

(8) I'll never forget my parents' tolerant smiles when I made a mistake years ago.(移就)

(9) Dreams are soap bubbles which will be broken in the end; dreams are wings which help us fly in an imaginary world freely.(对比)

(10) Physical beauty stays only for a while，but inner beauty lasts forever.(对比)

最后附上范文一篇。在阅读的同时，看看你能否找到含有修辞格的句子:

Directions: For this part，you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled The Present Chinese Examination System: a Curse or a Blessing? You should write at least120 words following the outline given below:

1.现行的考试制度有其优点

2.然而，现行的考试制度也存在不足

3.为改革现行考试制度中的不足之处，你的建议是……

参考范文:

The Present Chinese Examination System: a Curse or a Blessing?

(1) The present examination system in China has multiple merits．(2) Most importantly，it gives every examinee an equal opportunity for education．(3) Rich or poor，all the people can take the exams that help them achieve goals they have long been in pursuit of．(4) Such a system allows our country to select students for further training－another compelling advantage．(5) After these students benefit from the country，the country will in turn profit from them．(6) Last but not least，where there is pressure，there is motivation．(7) The present examination system can always witness students getting up early，borrowing books from the library，downloading useful information from the Internet，memorizing all the required basics of a particular field，and preparing for a closed-book exam into the night．

(8) However，a number of flaws with such a system are also widely visible．(9) For example，in an exam-centered educational system，scores are to a student what profits are to an entrepreneur．(10) To achieve high scores，some students consequently commit 110% to what will appear on tests．(11) Second，driven to memorize mechanically rather than to think creatively，some students believe that this method of studying is boring．(12) Third，fearing to get poor exam grades or even fail the exam，others tend to cheat．(13) Finally，judging a student's potential on the basis of a single test is not fair at all; an examinee's failure may be accidental and he or she may have talents in other fields．(14) Take Thomas Edison for example．(15) Having done poorly in his first years of schooling，he was never considered as being successful in the future by his teachers．(16) But surprisingly，Edison became one of the greatest inventors of the world!

(17) Listed below are some of my suggestions for reforming the present examination system．(18) To begin with，in-class participation should be included in evaluating students'over all academic achievements．(19) Those who are actively involved in class discussions should be rewarded．(20) In addition，while preparing exams，teachers should design more questions that require students to make inferences rather than to simply recall facts．(21) What's more，teachers should allow their students to substitute essays for exams instead of giving them one painful exam after another．(22) Definitely，only after new examination methods are put into practice will students find that learning does not just add pressure to their lives but can actually bring pleasure．

全文中共有五个含有修辞格的句子，即在第(6)、第(7)、第(9)、第(11)和第(21)句中分别出现了仿拟(where there is pressure，there is motivation)、拟人(The present examination system can always witness students getting up early…．)、明喻(scores are to a student what profits are to an entrepreneur)、对比(to memorize mechanically rather than to think creatively)以及移就(painful exam)修辞格。