Read Poetry for Everyday Life p. 16

Post your ideas to the Exercise 1C questions on p. 17 (unlimited words)

Respond to blow comments (unlimited words)

1. First of all, I have used the metaphors “sponge off friends” or “skim funds off the top” in my daily life. I mainly use the first metaphor to explain someone who does nothing himself but tries to get profit from others. For example, when doing group assignments, I could use this word to explain those who want to get a high score without doing anything. We can also call those people “free-riders.” Also, I use the sentence “We devour a book” when I want to talk about someone who has studied one thing for a long time. For example, when my friend studies for a long time, I usually use that metaphor to explain how into the book he was.

As such, we use many different kinds of metaphors in our daily lives. By using these metaphors, we can emphasize and ensure what we want to convey to others. Most people also feel that it is difficult to understand and explain something completely new. At this time, people will be more likely to accept and understand new things if we compare them to things we already know, which is what a metaphor means. 

But there is something we should be careful about when using such metaphors. First, a metaphor cannot contain accurate numerical data. For example, metaphors can often be interpreted literally, so people might exaggerate what they say. Therefore, it would be more effective to speak bluntly through objective data than by using a metaphor when talking about accurate figures and information. Also, we should be careful because if the listener does not understand the metaphor correctly, it can mess up the point of the conversation.

2. To be honest, as an international student, I am not familiar with most of the metaphors that have been mentioned in the textbook, but there is one metaphor that I use quite a lot, even when I was in China. In China. This was how we use the word “down” to represent a feeling of sadness, and the word “high” to represent a feeling of happiness during our daily conversations. It is pretty interesting and for me, I think it can help us get closer to each other. I definitely want to start using some of the other metaphors the article mentions as well. 

In my opinion, people tend to use metaphors to describe things, especially things that are new to them since some expressions are really difficult to understand and sometimes we cannot interpret things as exactly as the way we want. Also, words sometimes limit our imaginations, so it’s easier to explain things by using comparisons to things we are already familiar with.

Through metaphors, we can express things in an interesting and simple way rather than explain it literally which might not be easy to understand. However, if we only use metaphors to explain something, it could be too exaggerated, so we need to keep questioning the metaphors we use unless it comes with data that can constrain the metaphors. Thus, it is really important to know how metaphors are used in order for us to understand them in more reasonable ways.