2023年英语专八真题听力 演讲

Metaphors in Speaking

言语隐喻

Good morning, everyone. Today we’ll continue our discussion on the art of speaking, focusing on the use of metaphors in speaking.

大家早上好。今天，我们将继续讨论说话的艺术，重点是隐喻在说话中的使用。

Now, why do we need to talk about metaphors in speaking? Well, according to research findings, we utter about six metaphors a minute.

那么，为什么我们需要在说话中谈论隐喻呢？根据研究结果，我们每分钟会说出六个隐喻。

And metaphorical thinking is essential to how we understand ourselves and others, how we communicate, learn,discover and invent.

隐喻思维对于我们如何理解自己和他人，如何交流、学习、发现和发明至关重要。

Actually, metaphor is a way of thought before it is a way with words.

实际上，隐喻是一种思维方式，而不是一种用词的方式。

Now, to assist me in explaining this,I've enlisted the help of a man whose contributions to the field are so tremendous that he himself has become a metaphor.

现在，为了帮助我解释这一点，我请了一个人的帮助，他对这个领域的贡献是如此巨大，以至于他自己也成了一个隐喻。

I am, of course, referring to none other than Elvis Presley. His All Shook Up is such a touching love song.

当然，我指的是猫王普雷斯利。他的激动是如此感人的情歌。

It's also an example of how we inevitably resort to metaphor when we deal with anything abstract, like ideas, emotions, feelings, concepts, thoughts.

这也是一个例子，说明当我们处理任何抽象的事物，比如思想、情感、感觉、概念、思想时，我们不可避免地会诉诸隐喻。

In this,Elvis is following Aristotle’s classic definition of metaphor, that is, metaphor is the process of giving the thing a name that belongs to something else.

在这个过程中，埃尔维斯遵循亚里士多德对隐喻的经典定义，即隐喻是将事物命名为其他事物的过程。

And this is the mathematics of metaphor. X equals Y.It’s very simple isn’t it? This formula works wherever metaphor is present.

这是隐喻的数学。X等于Y，很简单，不是吗？这个公式在隐喻存在的地方起作用。

Elvis used metaphor, and so does Shakespeare in this famous line from Romeo and Juliet, that is,“Juliet is the sun” Now here,Shakespeare gives the thing,Juliet, a name that belongs to something else, the sun.

猫王用了比喻，莎士比亚在“罗密欧与朱丽叶”这句著名的台词里也用了，也就是说，“朱丽叶就是太阳”，莎士比亚给了这个东西，朱丽叶，一个属于其他东西的名字，太阳。

In fact whenever we give a thing a name that belongs to something else, we give it a whole network of analogies too.

事实上，每当我们给一个事物起一个属于其他东西的名字时，我们也会给它一个完整的类比网络。

We mix and match what we know about the metaphor’s source in this case,the sun, with what we know about its target,Juliet.

我们把我们所知道的隐喻的来源--太阳--和我们所知道的目标朱丽叶(Juliet)混合起来。

And metaphor gives us a much more vivid understanding of Juliet than if Shakespeare had literally described just what she looks like.

隐喻给了我们对朱丽叶的更生动的理解，如果莎士比亚真的描述了她的样子的话。

So how do we make and interpret metaphors?This might look familiar.The first step is pattern recognition. Metaphor is not just the detection of patterns; instead, it is the creation of patterns.

那么我们如何制作和解释隐喻呢？这可能看起来很熟悉。第一步是模式识别。隐喻不仅仅是对模式的检测，而是模式的创造。

And the second step is conceptual synesthesia. And what is synesthesia?

第二步是概念通感。什么是通感？

It is the experience of a stimulus received by one sense organ and another sense organ as well, for example,like colored hearing.

这是一种由一个感觉器官和另一个感觉器官接受刺激的体验，例如，有色听觉。

People with colored hearing actually see colors when they hear the sounds of words or letters.

有颜色听力的人在听到单词或字母的声音时实际上会看到颜色。

We all have synesthetic abilities, and many of the metaphors we use every day are synesthetic. For instance, silence is sweet. Neckties are loud.

我们都有合成能力，我们每天使用的许多隐喻都是合成的。例如，沉默是甜蜜的。领带很吵。

So metaphor creates a kind of conceptual synesthesia, in which we understand one concept in the context of another.

因此，隐喻创造了一种概念通感，在这种感觉中，我们在另一种语境中理解一个概念。

Let’s move on to the third step,that is cognitive dissonance.There is a test called the Stroop test.

让我们转到第三步，即认知失调，有一个叫做Stroop测试的测试。

What you need to do is identify as quickly as possible the color of the ink in which words of color are printed.

你需要做的是尽快识别打印颜色单词的墨水的颜色。

If you're like most people, you’ll experience a moment of cognitive dissonance when the name of the color is printed in a differently colored ink.

如果你和大多数人一样，当颜色的名字用不同颜色的墨水打印出来时，你会感受到认知上的不和谐。

For example, the word “red”is printed in blue ink.

例如，“红色”一词是用蓝色墨水印刷的。

Then you may wonder what the test intends to tell us. Well, the test shows that we cannot overlook the literal meaning of words, even when the literal meaning gives the wrong answer.

然后，您可能想知道测试打算告诉我们什么。好吧，测试表明，我们不能忽视单词的字面意思，即使字面意思给出了错误的答案。

Stroop tests have been done with metaphor as well The participants had to identify as quickly as possible the literally false sentences.

斯特鲁普测试也用隐喻进行了参与者必须尽快识别字面上的错误句子。

They took longer to reject metaphors as false than they did to reject literally false sentences. Why?Because we cannot ignore the metaphorical meaning of words either.

他们拒绝隐喻是假的比喻比拒绝字面上的假句子要长。为什么？因为我们也不能忽视单词的隐喻意义。

For example,one of the sentences was, “Some jobs are jails.”Now,unless you're a prison guard yourself,the sentence “Some jobs are jails.” is literally false. Sadly, it’s metaphorically true.

例如，其中一句话是，“有些工作是监狱。现在，除非你自己是监狱看守，否则“有些工作就是监狱”这句话实际上是错误的。可悲的是，这在隐喻上是真实的。

And the metaphorical truth interferes with our ability to identify it as literally false.

隐喻的真理干扰了我们将其识别为字面错误的能力。

Metaphor matters because it’s around us every day,all the time. How and in what ways does metaphor matter?

隐喻很重要，因为它每天都在我们身边，无时无刻不在。隐喻如何以及在哪些方面重要？

Well, I'd say metaphor matters,first of all, because it creates expectations. So pay careful attention the next time you read some financial news.

嗯，我想说比喻很重要，首先，因为它创造了期望。因此，下次阅读一些财经新闻时要仔细注意。

Agent metaphors describe price movements as the deliberate action of a living thing, as in,“The NASDAQ climbed higher.”

代理人的比喻将价格变动描述为生物的故意行为，例如“纳斯达克指数攀升更高”。

Object metaphors describe price movements as non-living things, as in,“The Dow fell like a brick.”Researchers once asked a group of people to read market commentaries and then predict the next day’s price trend.

对象隐喻将价格走势描述为非生物，例如，“道琼斯指数像砖头一样下跌。研究人员曾经让一群人阅读市场评论，然后预测第二天的价格走势。

Those exposed to agent metaphors had higher expectations that price trends would continue.

那些接触代理人隐喻的人对价格趋势将继续有更高的期望。

And they had those expectations because agent metaphors imply the deliberate action of a living thing pursuing a goal.

他们之所以有这些期望，是因为代理人隐喻暗示了一个生物追求目标的刻意行为。

If,for example, house prices are routinely described as climbing and climbing, higher and higher, people might naturally assume that rise is incessant.

例如，如果房价通常被描述为不断攀升，越来越高，人们可能会自然而然地认为上涨是不断的。

Also, metphor matters because it influences decisions by activating analogies.Let me give you an example, which was actually an experiment.

此外，metphor 很重要，因为它通过激活类比来影响决策。我举个例子，其实是一个实验。

A group of students was told that a small country had been invaded and had asked for help.

一群学生被告知，一个小国被入侵并寻求帮助。

And they had to make a decision,to the United Nations, or just do nothing?They were each then given one of the three descriptions of this hypothetical crisis.

然后他们必须做出决定，是向联合国，还是什么都不做？然后他们每个人都得到了关于这个假想危机的三种描述中的一种。

Each of the three descriptions was designed to trigger a different historical analogy: World War I,Vietnam, and the third was historically neutral.

这三种描述中的每一种都是为了引发不同的历史类比：第一次世界大战，越南，第三次是历史上的中立国了。

Those exposed to the World War II scenario made more interventionist recommendations than the others.

那些暴露在第二次世界大战的情况下提出了更多的干预建议比其他人。

This shows that just as we cannot ignore the literal meaning of words, we cannot ignore the analogies that are triggered by metaphor.

这表明，正如我们不能忽视词语的字面意义一样，我们也不能忽视由隐喻引发的类比。

Metaphor matters because it opens the door to discovery.Whenever we solve a problem or make a discovery, we compare what we know with what we don't know.

隐喻很重要，因为它打开了发现的大门。每当我们解决一个问题或做出一个发现时，我们都会比较我们所知道的和我们所不知道的。

And the only way to find out about the latter is to investigate the ways it might be like the former.

而发现后者的唯一方法就是调查它可能与前者相似的方式。

Now,we know that metaphor is ubiquitous, yet it’s hidden.

现在，我们知道隐喻是无处不在的，但它是隐藏的。

But you just have to look at the words around you,and you'll find it.Ralph Waldo Emerson described language as “fossil poetry.”

但是你只要看看你周围的文字，你就会发现。拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生把语言描述为“化石诗歌”。

But before, it was fossil metaphor, and these fossils still breathe.

但在此之前，这是化石的比喻，这些化石仍然呼吸。

OK, let me sum up today’s lecture. We’ve looked at how metaphor is defined,how people understand metaphors, and how metaphors might influence people’s expectations and decisions.

好，我来总结一下今天的讲座。我们研究了隐喻是如何定义的，人们是如何理解隐喻的，以及隐喻是如何影响人们的预期和决定的。

Before we call it a day, I'd like to walk you through a famous quote from Francis Bacon:“Some books are to be tasted, others swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”

在我们结束之前，我想和大家一起回顾一下培根的一句名言：“有些书可以浅尝即止，有些书可以囫囵吞枣，而有些书则需要细嚼慢咽，好好消化。”

Well,how many metaphors are there in the statement? That's your takeaway homework.

声明中有多少个比喻？这是你的外卖作业。

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