文章献给准备过英语专业八级的同学，给同学一点必需的知识，希望大家考试成功。
1. A Tale of Two Cities was written by Charles Dickens.
2. Phonology: The study of speech sounds in language or a language with reference to their distribution and patterning and to tacit rules governing pronunciation. 音位学; 在语言或一门语言中，对有关其分类和模式以及为大家所默认的发音规则的研究音韵学, 音系学
3. Syntax: The study of the rules whereby words or other elements of sentence structure are combined to form grammatical sentences. 句法，研究词或其它句子成分如何联合起来形成合乎语法的句子规则的学科
4. Semantics: The study or science of meaning in language forms.语义学，以语言形式表示意思的研究或科学
5. acronym : 首字母组合词，首字母缩略词，比如，NATO, UNESCO, BASIC,它们可以连拼，但VOA是 Initialism。
6. Metonymy: A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated, as in the use of Washington for the United States government or of the sword for military power. 换喻或转喻，一种,一个词或词组被另一个与之有紧密联系的词或词组替换的修辞方法，如用华盛顿代替美政府或用剑代替军事力量，对面来了三个“红领巾”也是，以红领巾指代少先队员。?
7. Simile: A figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared, often in a phrase introduced by like or as, as in How like the winter hath my absence been or So are you to my thoughts as food to life (Shakespeare).明喻, 一种修辞手法，把两种基本不相像的东西进行比较，通常在由 like或 as引导的短语中，如 “我的离开好象是冬天来临”或“你对我的思想就象食物对于生命一样重要”(莎士比亚)
8. :Metaphor: A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as in a sea of troubles or All the world's a stage(Shakespeare) 隐喻一种语言表达手法，通常用指某物的词或词组来指代他物，从而暗示它们之间的相似之处，如 “忧愁之海”或“整个世界一台戏”(莎士比亚) the ship of desert 沙漠之舟
9. Oxymoron: A rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are combined, as in a deafening silence and a mournful optimist. 矛盾修饰法, 一种把互相矛盾或不调和的词合在一起的修辞手法，如在 震耳欲聋的沉默和悲伤的乐观 cruel kindness