關鍵字彙：
aesthetic/ allegory/ anecdote/ anthology/ baton/ burlesque/ caricature/ delineate/ denouement/ depict/ didactic/ doggerel/ epithet/ fable/ genre/ graphic/ histrionic/ ineffable/ lachrymose/ minstrel/ motif/ panorama/ pantomime/ parable/ parody/ pathos/ philistine/ prolific/ prosody/ protagonist/ rehearse/ satiric/ silhouette/ soliloquy/ verve/ vicarious/ virtuoso/ vivid/ vulgar/ yarn
1. 文學藝術作品等「具美感的」叫aesthetic，「說教的」叫didactic，「賺人眼淚的」叫lachrymose，「淒美」叫pathos：
•In pursuit of the aesthetic achievement of art, many of the writers in the early 20th century began to distance themselves from the general public and society.
•He was only interested in aesthetic values rather than in purely practical affairs.
•The audience was awfully bored by the didactic movie.
•His speech to the freshmen was painfully didactic.
•This is a poem with a didactic purpose.
•This is a lachrymose tragedy.
•The pathos of the play was rarely offset by moments of comedy.
2. 形容欣賞文學藝術時把自己投射到作品中的某一角色，隨之離合悲歡，或藉此滿足一些在現實生活中不能滿足的事情，用vicarious：
•Many people get a vicarious thrill at the movies by imagining they are the characters on the screen.
•He gets vicarious pleasure by going to watch movies about sex.
3. 「品味低俗的」叫vulgar，「對文學藝術無感之人」叫philistine：
•Oftentimes, our TV programs tend to cater to vulgar taste.
•The house was full of costly but very vulgar furniture.
•There are too many philistines who oppose everything new and creative in art.
4. 文藝作品的「類型」叫genre，其主題或內容可用motif，把一切情節都妥善交代的「故事結局」叫denouement，「主角」叫protagonist：
•Edgar Allan Poe is regarded as the originator of a genre of detective stories.
•A love motif runs through the entire novel.
•The denouement of the play is a happy ending.
•The soap fans wrote to the screenwriter very sentimental letters suggesting that the protagonist stay alive.
5. 在較不正式的敘述中，可用yarn表「故事」，但這個字通常用於spin a yarn片語中：
•Please spin a good yarn for the children; they never tire of it.
6. 有關某人或某事件之短且有趣的故事－也就是「逸事」或「異事」－ 叫anecdote：
•Most children enjoy listening to anecdote of great men's childhood.
7. 中文的「寓言」，英文有allegory、fable和parable三字。allegory的使用層面最廣，不只是文學作品，甚至繪畫都可以有allegory。文學中的allegory往往長篇而複雜，包含很多人物角色，情節豐富，政治、道德和宗教都可以是寓言的素材。fable和parable則簡短，fable通常在最後道出給人的教訓，並且藉著能說話的動物反應人性，把故事敘述出來。parable則總是將道德教訓加入在人人都熟悉的事物中，但和allegory一樣，並不點破寓意：
•The picture can be viewed as allegory.
•Augustine's "City of God" is an allegory of the triumph of good over evil.
•Dante's "Divine Comedy" is an allegory based on the struggle among the city-states of the medieval Italy.
•The tale "A Turtle and a Rabbit" is a well-known fable.
•A fable is often of a moral lesson.
•Jesus Christ taught in parables.
8. 誇大或滑稽呈現某人特質的畫或文學叫caricature，對某作家、藝術家的風格或某文類的「戲謔模仿」用parody或burlesque，這種「諷刺的」手法叫satiric：
•This is not a realistic portrait of the king but a malicious caricature.
•Newspapers often contain caricatures of well-known politicians.
•We enjoyed the clever parody of popular songs which the chorus sang.
•He wrote a parody on Kipling's "GungaDin."
•Evidently, this is a burlesque of a famous poem.
•Jonathan Swift was the greatest English satiric writer/ the greatest English satirist in the 18th century.
•Mr. Lurie is noted for his satiric sketches.
9. 「打油詩」叫doggerel，「詩學」、「作詩法」叫prosody，中世紀為歐洲貴族朗詩或唱詩助興的「吟唱詩人」叫minstrel：
•Although we find occasional snatches of genuine poetry in his works, most of his writing is mere doggerel.
•This book on prosody contains a rhyming dictionary as well as samples of the various verse forms.
•In the Middle Ages, minstrels traveled from place to place to make a living by singing.
10. 一種源自古羅馬時期的mime、演員不開口說話、只隨音樂應用姿勢和表情傳達意思的「默劇」叫pantomime，戲劇作家為反應角色之內心世界所特別安排的「獨白」叫soliloquy：
•The pantomime was quite expressive.
•Soliloquy is a device used by the dramatist to reveal a character's innermost thoughts and emotions.
11. 作家、藝術家、作曲家等「多產的」叫prolific，編選不同作家作品而成的「選集」叫anthology：
•Definitely, Shakespeare is one of the fewest writers who are both prolific and great.
•Isaac Asimov is a very prolific writer.
•This is an anthology of the Renaissance English plays.
•This is an anthology of modern poetry.
12. 「描寫」除describe和portray之外，還可用delineate或depict，描寫「生動的」叫graphic或vivid，「筆墨所難以形容的」叫ineffable：
•The writer is well versed in delineating social customs.
•The song depicts the love of a prince for a country girl.
•In that book, the author depicts the slave owners as kind and benevolent masters.
•The witness gave a graphic description of the whole incident.
•The novel begins with a vivid description of the protagonist's early life.
•I wish that I am able to attain to the ineffable joy of Zen meditation during my lifetime.
13. 「通盤的描寫」叫panorama，人或東西的「剪影」或「輪廓」叫silhouette：
•This book gives a panorama of life in England 400 years ago.
•The artist had a silhouette of himself on his desk.
14. 「描寫性的形容用語」叫epithet：
•Homer's writings are replete with such epithets as "resourceful Odysseus."
•He cursed me, using a lot of rude epithets like "bloody."
•"Glaring error" is a commonly used epithet.
15. 「預演」叫rehearse，「精湛的表演者」叫virtuoso，演出者在表演過程中所展現的「生命力」或「熱情」叫verve：
•The symphony will be rehearsed again and again before it is presented to the public.
•The violin virtuoso was only 13 years old.
•The pianist played the concerto with tremendous verve.
16. 「關於戲劇表演的」、「演技的」叫histrionic：
•The actor was proud of his histrionic ability and wanted to play the role of Hamlet.
17. 「指揮棒」叫baton：
•The conductor wielded his baton gracefully.
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