谁

                   文/杜马

数九未来，雪掩漫道山河路，冰增些许，寒透羽绒絮。

无限思量，青年厚皮裤。棉谁续？渐涨情素。泪洒想生母。

                         Metaphor

1.The picture of those poor people’s lives was carved so sharply in his heart that he could never forget it.

2.There was a medieval magnificence about the big dining-hall.

3.The street faded into a country road with straggling houses by it.

4,.There were a few lordly poplars before the house.

5.All his former joy was drowned in the embarrassment and confusion he was feeling at the moment.

6.He often prefaced his remarks by “I can’t help thinking…”

7.He often prefaced his remarks by “I can’t help thinking..”

8.The charcoal fire glowed and dimmed rhythmically to the strokes of the bellows.

As is shown in these sentences, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs can all be used in a metaphorical way. There is always a comparison implied. Take sentence 4, for instance. The word lordly suggests that the poplars before the house were tall, straight and stately, just like ancient aristocrats. The verbprefaced in sentence 6 compares that man’s way of beginning every remark with “I can’t help thinking…” to providing a preface to a book.

A metaphor or a simile has to be fresh to be effective. One that has been frequently used over a long period of time will become dull and stale, and cease to function as a metaphor or simile. “The leg of a table’ must have been a metaphor when it was first used, but today we feel that leg is used in its literal sense.