Figurative Speeches
第一对：Simile & Metaphor
Both are figures of speech in which one thing is likened and compared, the former with explicit such as “like, as, seem, as if” but the later with implicit comparison.
The check fluttered to the floor like a bird with a broken wing.
The sunshine of happiness is made up of very little dreams.
第二对：Metonymy & Synecdoche
Both figurative speeches belong to substitution, the former using the associated for one thing but the later the part for whole, or species for genus, or the material for the made.
No eye saw him, but a second later every ear heard a gunshot.
The hall applauded.
第三对：Personification & Transferred epithet
Personification is a figure of speech where human qualities are attributed to inanimate objects.
Transferred epithet is a figure of speech in which the epithet is transferred from the appropriate noun to modify another to which it does not really belong.
The houses are cold, closed and unfriendly.
All that sleepless night I replayed the moment those black gloves came up to the car window.
第四对：Parallelism & Antithesis
Parallelism is a figure of speech in which words, phrases, clauses or sentences are constructed in the same grammatical structure; while antithesis is a figure of speech in which contrasting ideas are expressed in the same structure.
Bob is a hard fitter, a sure fielder and swift runner.
We found ourselves rich in goods, but ragged in spirit.
第五对：Hyperbole & Euphemism & Understatement
Hyperbole is a figure of speech which exaggerates the truth.
Understatement is a figure of speech which contains an understatement of emphasis ,as opposite to hyperbole.
Euphemism is a figure of speech in which something of an unpleasant, distressing, or indelicate nature is described in less offensive terms.
He ran down the avenue, making a noise like ten horses at a gallop.
The band manages to eke out a living, with a gross revenue of 4 billion in 1979.
Tom is a psychological patient.
第六对：Onomatopoeia:
a figurative speech in which words imitating sounds are used.
Alliteration: the initial sounds of two or more words, phrases are the same.
Assonance: the vowels in the middle or end of two or more words are the same.
Consonance: the consonants in the end of two or more words are the same.
Bracket rhyme: the beginning and end of two or more words are the same.
第七对：Climax & Anti-climax
Climax is a figurative sentence/paragraph in which three or more parts are mounting in tone, level or extent; while anti-climax is a figurative sentence in which the last part expresses something lower than the first part.
We had plenty of company in the way of wagen-loads and mule-loads of tourists – and dust.
It is a sin to bind a Roman citizen, a crime to scourge him, the most unnatural murder to put him to death.
第八对：Allusion is an indirect reference, perhaps to another work of lite
rature or art, to a person or an event.
I have nourished a viper in my bosom.