自考英美文学选读名词解释十三

　　181. Exemplum（说教故事）

　　A tale， usually inserted into the text of a sermon that illustrates a moral principle.

　　182. Exposition（解释说明）

　　（1） That part of a narrative or drama in which important background information is revealed.

　　（2） It is the kind of writing that is intended primarily to present information. Exposition is one of the major forms of discourse. The most familiar form it takes is in essays. Exposition is also that part of a play in which important background information is revealed to the audience.

　　183. Fable（寓言）

　　A fable is a short story， often with animals as its characters， which illustrate a moral.

　　184. Figurative language（比喻语言）

　　Language that is not intended to be interpreted in a literal sense. By appealing to the imagination， figurative language provides new ways of looking at the world. Figurative language consists of such figures of speech as hyperbole， metaphor， metonymy， oxymoron（矛盾修饰法）， personification， simile， and synecdoche.

　　185. Figure of speech（修辞特征）

　　A word or an expression that is not meant to be interpreted in a literal sense. The most common kinds of figures of speech-simile， metaphor， personification， and metonymy-involve a comparison between unlike things.

　　186. Foil（衬托）

　　A character who sets off another character by contrast.

　　187. Foot（脚注）

　　It is a rhythmic unit， a specific combination of stressed and unstressed syllables.

　　188. Hyperbole（夸张）

　　A figure of speech using exaggeration， or overstatement， for special effect.

　　189. Iamb（抑扬格）

　　It is the most commonly used foot in English poetry， in which an unstressed syllable comes first， followed by a stressed syllable.

　　190. Image（影像）

　　We usually think with words， many of our thoughts come to us as pictures or imagined sensations in our mind. Such imagined pictures or sensations are called images.

　　191. Incremental repetitio（递增重复）

　　The repetition of a previous line， or lines but with a slight variation each time that advances the narrative stanza by stanza. This device is commonly used in ballads.

　　192. In medias res（中间部分）

　　A technique of plunging into the middle of a story and only later using a flashback to tell what has happened previously. In medias res is Latin for “in the middle of things”。

　　193. Inversion（倒置）

　　The technique of reversing， or inverting， the normal word order of a sentence. Writers may use inversion to create a certain tone or to emphasize a particular word or idea. A poet may invert a line so that it fits into a particular meter or rhyme scheme.

　　194. Invocation（祈祷）

　　At the beginning of an epic （or other poem） a call to a muse， god， or spirit for inspiration.

　　195. Kenning（代称）

　　In Old English poetry， an elaborate phrase that describes persons， things， or events in a metaphorical and indirect way.