明喻是一種非常明顯的比喻。由本體、喻體、比喻詞構(gòu)成。本體指被比喻的事物，喻體指作比喻的事物，比喻詞是連接本體和輸體的連接詞。通常的格式是“甲像乙”。常用的比喻詞有 “好比”、“ 宛然”、“宛如”、“恰似”、“猶如”、“仿佛”、“如……一 般”等。英語中常用“seem, appear, look like，as if ”等。但所用的喻體不能直接譯成中文，多半需要轉(zhuǎn)義，或引申原義才符合漢語習(xí)慣，比如：
Indeed, with the banks now holding some $600 billion worth of property loans at home and tens of billions more abroad, these mammoth lenders "seem to have turned into financial basket cases overnight."
—Business Week , Dec. 2, 1991 p.48
實(shí)際上，現(xiàn)在銀行發(fā)放國內(nèi)房地產(chǎn)貸款約6 000億美元，囯外數(shù)百億美元，這些放款巨頭“似乎一夜之間變成了金融腐子，寸步維行”
——《國際商業(yè)與管理》，
1992年，第3期，第48頁
上面句子里的basket caes原指戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)中戰(zhàn)士受傷后變成四肢傷殘不全的人。這里喻指放款大亨轉(zhuǎn)眼間變得像個(gè)瘸子運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)不靈了。再看下面這兩個(gè)例子：
a. The relationship with Wal-Mart, says one former high- ranking execurive, is " what killed the brand". Working with the chain, he says, was like “dancing with a gorilla, and suddenly you're married to it. ”
一Business Week , Dec.21，1992 p.72
一位前任髙級(jí)經(jīng)理說，該公司同沃爾-馬特的關(guān)系正是“其產(chǎn)品砸牌的根源”。他說，同這個(gè)連鎖店合作，就像“與一個(gè)暴徙跳舞，一不小心你就被他結(jié)合了”。
b. Privately, several of the President's advisers contend that the current runaway spending on public and private health care is a growing burden on the economy, which, Like a surgical panent who must feel worse before he can get better, might need to endure modestly higher unemployment for several years as the price of reform. Trouble is, Clinton has not prepared the public for any sacrifice. He and his top health-care strategist, Ira Magaziner, have been selling health-care reform as a four-course free lunch. Everyone will be covered. It won't require new taxes. It will immediately boost job creation. And it will immediately reduce the federal deficit. "Several of us，" says a political adviser to Clinton, "are worried that we're creating expectations for health care that can't be met."
—TIME, Sept. 6，1993 p.33
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