比喻是作者精心策划的归类错误，是作者经过观察产生的联想。成功的比喻既具有独创性，又具有可接受性；通俗而不陈腐，新颖而不古怪，清晰而不浅露，形象生动、鲜明。好的比喻能体现认知功能和审美功能的完美结合，能够给读者留下深刻的印象。下面让我们欣赏一些例句：
1."...It is hard enough to start …
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2."We are old fossils.We are part of another world.A world ofdinosaurs"用“化石”“恐龙”将“落伍于时代”“历史的古董”“僵化守旧”等含义体现得淋漓尽致。
3."I was a little surprised that he had married her,but these May-December alliances are commoner than one likes to admit."一个是风华正茂，一个是风烛残年；一个是阳春，一个是隆冬。这种忘年之合，通过"May"和"December"这两个词，表达得十分贴切，体现出作者洞察事物本质的敏锐。
4."And what would it be to grow old?For after a certain distance,every step we take in life we find the ice growing thinner below our feet,and all around us and behind us we see our contemporaries going through."“如履薄冰”形容晚年生命朝不保夕；用“穿冰落水”暗喻生命的终结，含蓄而不晦涩，即使对没有冰上经验的读者也不费解。
5."It is an idle question to ask whether his books will be read a century hence;if they were all burnt as the grandest of suttees on his funeral pile,it would only be like cutting down an oak after its acorns have sown a forest."这一比喻生动地表明他的著作将永垂于世。"oak"一词本身就有“坚固”“持久”的象征意义；橡树种籽入土，百树挺起，生动表达了他的著作影响广泛、深远。
6."Every one got hurt in 1970,but the investor who was up to his elbow in fast food seems to have escaped with relatively slight first degree burns."用相对轻微的“一度烧伤”来表示快餐业在其他行业普遍不景气的情况下，虽然和以前相比，盈利减少，却并未遭受严重损害。这一比喻新奇、准确，给人印象深刻。
