Understanding Figurative Language
We learned how to understand figurative language in Unit 5 and Unit 10, Book 2 and Unit 4, Book 3. The ability to recognize and explain figurative language may help us fully understand a writer's point and it is crucial to a better understanding of what we read. To make language clearer, more interesting, and more striking, writers often use expressions that are not literally true, making comparisons in their writing. Figurative language — language that compares — paints a picture for the reader. When we use words in other than their ordinary or literal senses to lend force to an idea, to heighten effect, or to create suggestive imagery, we are said to be speaking or writing figuratively. However, figurative language can be confusing if it is understood literally.
In Unit 5, Book 2, we mentioned many different ways of using figurative language.
a) Similes (明喻, 直喻). These are figurative expressions that directly compare one thing to another by using the words as or like.
b) Metaphors (暗喻), in which comparisons are only implied, without using as, like and the like.
c) Personification (拟人), figurative expressions which compare non-human things to humans.
Of course, there are many more figures of speech than has been mentioned.
Here are some tips for you to recognize figurative ways of saying things:
1. Make sure that you are aware that the writer is making a comparison.
2. Keep clearly in your mind just what is being compared to what. Don't lose the basic point by getting confused about the comparison and forgetting what the writer is explaining in the first place.
3. Look for such words as like and as, which often introduce comparison.
4. Try to figure out why the writer has made the comparison.
Now here are some examples from Reading Passage A to help you understand figurative language.
Example 1
Oh, I'm tempted to get paid under the table. (Para. 2, Reading Passage A, Unit 3)
Explanation: under the table — without others knowing that I'm being paid.
Example 2
But even if I yielded to that temptation, big magazines are not going to get involved in some sticky situation. (Para. 2, Reading Passage A, Unit 3)
Explanation: sticky situation — situation that one can not get rid of or get out of
Example 3
But after a few years in a system that practically requires people to lie, they become like the one I shall call “Suzanne”, a detective in shorts. (Para. 3, Reading Passage A, Unit 3)
Explanation: a detective in shorts — the caseworker is being compared to a detective who wears shorts like a sportsman, chased the clients and tried to find out faults with the clients.
Example 4
Friends and family. (Para. 9, Passage A, Unit 3)
Explanation: Friends and family are clearly not parallel to each other. Here “family” is a substitution of whole for parts. The “family” here means members of the family.
Example 5
I've heard that you put a lot more miles on that wheelchair than average. (Para. 13, Passage A, Unit 3)
Explanation: “Put a lot more miles on” is clearly providing an image that the wheelchair is used too often or even overused.
Example 6
I'm an active worker, not a vegetable. (Para. 14, Passage A, Unit 3)
Explanation: “A vegetable” here is a comparison to someone who cannot move and has no feelings.
Example 7
She looked into every corner in search of unreported appliances, or maids, or a roast pig in the oven, or a new helicopter parked out back. (Para. 17, Passage A, Unit 3)
Explanation: Here we feel the force of exaggeration and ironic tone to the effect that the client disliked the caseworker's “visits”. Of course nobody would actually have a new helicopter in their backyard.
阅读技能（reading skill): Understanding Figurative Language
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