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it is necessary to find out what “metaphor” means. A metaphor employs a word or a phrase to indicate something different from the literal meaning. People seldom say “he died” but “he went to sleep forever” or “he went to his long home”. Here, “go to sleep forever” and “go to one’s long home” are both metaphors and euphemisms. More examples are: (19) He is Hamlet. (20) His plan is castle in the air. (21) John is carrying coals to Newcastle. Sentence (19) means “he is indecisive”, sentence (20) means “his plan is daydream”, and sentence (21) has the same meaning with “John is wasting time and energy”. Euphemisms created by this way also appear in literary works. Here is an example: (22)“therefore it is better to be a guest of the law, which though conducted by rules, does not interfere too with a gentleman’s private affairs.”[14] In sentence (22), “to be a guest of the law” means to “be in prison”, but the former is a pleasant substitution. Soapy would rather spend his winters in prison than get some help from charity organizations, for if he wants to get help from charities, his private affairs will be interfered. 3.5.2 Using understatement For the sake of politeness and pleasantness, people often use another formation called understatement, which, is not to state something fully or adequately. Understatement, as the word suggests, is “a statement that is not strong enough to express how good, bad, impressive etc something really is.”[15] “Understatement achieves its effect of emphasizing a fact by deliberately understating it.” [16] “Understatement is usually divided into litotes and meiosis. Litotes is understatement by using a negative statement instead of a positive one”[17]. Examples: (23) She is very ugly. --- She is not particularly good-looking. (24) He was quite rich. ---He was a man of no mean wealth. In sentence (23), “not particularly good-looking” is more neutral and vague than “ugly”, so the employment of this euphemism successfully avoids annoying the person concerned. Sentence (24) has something to do with personal affairs. Westerners don’t like others to talk about their private affairs. Wealth belongs to one’s privacy, so it is more polite to use a roundabout way to talk about it when you have to. “Meiosis is merely understatement without the use of negatives”[18]. Examples: (25) Her daughter is in prison. ---Her daughter lives under the government’s expense. (26) I can’t promise. ---Sorry, this is in fact more than I can promise. “prison” in sentence (25) is an unpleasant word. General speaking, people are sensitive to the word “prison” if one is in prison, you had better avoid mentioning “prison” in front of his relatives. Sentence (26) is a refusal. When you refuse someone, indirect words will get a better result, for they will not make him lose face. By using understatements, the speakers do not seem to be so cruel to others whom they speak something upsetting to. 3.5.3 Using metonymy Metonymy is another very useful rhetorical means to form English euphemisms. It uses the name of one thing to substitute that of another. By using it, some unpleasant expressions can be avoided. Metonymy can be further divided into the following. (ⅰ) Substituting the typical characteristics of a person for the person For example, (27) Gray hairs should be respected. In the above sentence, “Gray hairs” is employed to replace “old people”, for gray hair is one of the typical characteristics of old peopl