Understanding Figurative Language
As we learned in Unit 5, to make language clearer, more interesting, and more vivid, we often use expressions which are not literally true. We make comparisons in speaking and writing. Figurative language -- language that compares -- paints a picture for the reader. Figurative language can be confusing if it is understood literally. The ability to recognize and interpret figurative language may help us fully understand a writer’s meaning. Look at the following two examples taken from Reading Passage A:
1. Night after night, in the hot summer and early fall of 1940, a deep, steady voice came over the Atlantic Ocean from England to America, telling of England’s battle for survival under the waves of German bombers. (Para. 1)
2. On September 7, 1940, nearly four hundred German bombers hammered the city with bombs in broad daylight. (Para. 6)
In the first example above, the coming of German bombers is compared to the coming of sea waves, thus emphasizing the idea of huge numbers of German bombers continuously flying to England.
In the second example above, the bombing of the city by German bombers is compared to the use of a hammer, thus emphasizing the idea of repeated hitting by those bombers.
There are many different ways of using figurative language. Listed here are just a few of them:
a) Similes (明喻, 直喻), figurative expressions which directly compare one thing to another by using the words as or like.
b) Metaphors (暗喻), in which comparisons are only suggested, without using as, like and the like.
c) Personification (拟人), figurative expressions which give human qualities to non-human things.
The particular reading skill we reviewed in this unit is “understanding figurative language”. As we have already learned so far, to make language clearer, more interesting, and more vivid, we use expressions which are not literally true. We make comparisons in speaking and writing. Figurative language - language that compares - paints a picture for the reader. Figurative language can be confusing if it is understood literally. The ability to recognize and understand figurative language may help us fully understand an author’s point.
There are many different ways of using figurative language. Listed here are just a few of them:
a) Similes (明喻, 直喻). These are figurative expressions which directly compare one thing to another by using the words as or like. Here is one example taken from Reading Passage A of Unit 5:
The tobacco industry, coupled with Hollywood movies in which both male and female heroes smoked like chimneys ... (Para. 3, Reading Passage A, Unit 5)
b) Metaphors (暗喻), in which comparisons are only implied, without using as, like and the like. Look at the following two examples taken from Reading Passage A:
1. Newspapers appeared and people bought them, hurrying to work and reading reports of the battle raging over London. (Para. 9, Reading Passage A, Unit 10)
2. Much depended upon the handful of pilots who rose day after day and night after night to meet the flocks of Nazi bombers. (Para. 11, Reading Passage A, Unit 10)
In the first example, the battle is compared to some animate being which might explode into great anger, so the reader thinks that the battle was continuing with great violence.
In the second example, the English pilots are compared to something which can be easily held in the hand, emphasizing the small number of these pilots, whereas Nazi bombers are compared to huge numbers of large, fierce birds.
c) Personification (拟人), figurative expressions which compare non-human things to humans. Take two more examples from Reading Passage A:
1. Radar sirens wailed, ambulances rushed from one place of agony to another, and firemen faced the flames hour after hour. (Para. 7, Reading Passage A, Unit 10)
2. It seemed impossible for people of the city to do their daily jobs, to work and eat and sleep and carry on the business of life, with the crash of bombs all around them and planes spitting fire in the skies above. (Para. 8, Reading Passage A, Unit 10)
In these two examples, radar sirens are compared to people who wailed and planes are compared to people who spit. In both cases, non-human objects are described as if they were humans.
Now here is a short list of what we have covered as Reading Skills in Book 2 for your quick use in searching.
Unit 1: Reading for the Main Ideas in Paragraphs
Unit 2: Finding Out Word Meanings
Unit 3: Recognizing Differences Between Facts and Opinions
Unit 4: Reading for the Key Idea in a Sentence
Unit 5: Understanding Figurative Language
Unit 6: Reading for the Main Ideas in Paragraphs
Unit 7: Finding Out Word Meanings
Unit 8: Distinguishing Between Facts and Opinions
Unit 9: Reading for the Key Idea in a Sentence
Unit 10: Understanding Figurative Language