7. 夸 张
HYPERBOLE
1. 定义
Hyperbole: A figure of speech consisting in exaggerated or extravagant statement, ud to express a strong feeling or produce a strong impression, and not intended to be understood literally (OED); extravagant exaggeration that reprents something as much greater or less, better or wor, or more inten than it really is or that depicts impossible as actual (as “mile-high ice-cream cones”) (WED). 英语Hyperbole (夸张)一词源于希腊语的huperbole，原意为excess (姜的英文超过)。这是一种故意夸大其词或言过其实(overstatement)的修辞手法，其特点是对表达对象进行有违常识或不合逻辑的夸张性描写，以此来取得强烈的修辞效果。试比较以下例句：
(1) He ran down the avenue, making aloud noi.
(2) He ran down the avenue, making a noi like ten hors at a gallop.
显而易见，例(1)为一般性描写，而例(2)则属夸张性描写，远比例(1)生动形象，使人有如临其境，如闻其声之感。因此它常用于文学作品和日常生活中，而不用于科学著作、调查报告、情况汇报、政策文件等应用文体中。
就性质而言，英语夸张可分为两类，即扩大夸张(Extended Hyperbole)和缩小夸张(Reduced Hyperbole) 。前者将描写对象的形象、数量、作用、程度等特征性的东西说得特别高、特别大；后者正相反，即把描写对象的形象、数量、作用、程度等特征性的东西说得特别底、特别小。比较以下例句可看出两者的特点：
(1) His eloquence would split rocks!
他的雄辩之威之利，能劈磐石。
(2) It is the last straw that breaks the camel’天黑前的夏天s back.
骆驼负载过重，加根草就能压死。
*例(1)为扩大夸张；例(2)则是缩小夸张。
2．表达方式
英语Hyperbole按构成方式大体可分为五类，现分别举例说明。
( 1 ) 用数词表示
We must fight for every inch of land.
我们必须寸土必争。
This made him roar like a thousand bulls. ( George Eliot: The Mill on the Floss )
这使他像千牛怒吼一般咆哮起来。
I have given my last ounce关于人物的作文 of strength to my work.
我对工作已经尽了最大的努力。
人教版二年级语文下册 One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters. ( George Herbert )对牛弹琴成语故事
一个父亲的作用大于100个教师。
He gave her a ghost of a smile.
他对她露出一丝微笑
I loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love make up my sum. ( William Shakespeare: Hamlet )
我爱奥菲利娅：40 000个兄弟的爱合起来，还抵不过我对她的爱。
Splendid chees they were, ripe and mellow, and with a two hundred hor-power scent about them that might have warranted to carry three miles, and knock a man over at two hundred yards.
( J. K. Jerome )
这些奶酪妙极，酥软香甜，四溢的香气足有200马力那么强大，保证3英里以外都可以闻到，200码远处站着的人，也会被它的香气熏醉冲倒。
*灭绝的英语作者对奶酪气味的描绘竭尽夸张之能事，幽默风趣溢于言表。
We enjoy every minute of the play.
我对这个剧从头到尾都很欣赏。
She is sitting here, but her mind is a thousand miles away.
她人在这里坐着，心却在千里之外。
I beg you a thousand pardons.
我很对不起你，请千万原谅。
Thanks a million.
万分感谢。
The gang derve to die a thousand deaths.
赤壁古诗翻译这伙人罪该万死。
I’ve told you fifty times.
我对你讲过无数次了。
It’学乐器s a thousand pities that you can’t come.
你不能来，真令人遗憾。
My left leg weighs three tons. (Thomas Baily Aldrich: Marjorie Daw )
我的左腿重三吨。
You write ten times better than any man in the congress.
( Peter Stone and Sherman Edwards: 1776 )
你写得比议会中的任何人都要好上十倍。
An ounce of wisdom is worth a million tons of books.
( Konrad Bercovici: The Wisdom of the Illiterate” )
