【正文】 se and English. Besides climate, terrain and species of animals and plants, distribution of mineral deposits is an important factor for us to consider in terms of geological conditions. The ancient poem “問君能有幾多愁，恰似一江春水向東流” reflects China’s terrain is high in the west and low in the east。 and the English idiom “carry coals to Newcastle” (近乎做徒勞無功的事) arises from the background that Newcastle is an industrial city in England’s northeast, famous for coal exportation.[24] Secondly, metaphors reflect traditional culture and values. People in different nations have different ways of life, thinking, culture and mentalities. As shown above, metaphor and culture have close relations. Through metaphor, people can well understand the objective world. And metaphor, to some extent, reflects and determines the shaping of a nation’s culture and values. It is because that when people make metaphors on certain images, their views of culture and values must be manifested in these metaphors consciously or unconsciously. For example, in Chinese culture the pine, the bamboo and the plum are called three gentlemen in winter. Because the three of them can survive the extremely cold winter and remain vital. For Chinese, they represent a noble spirit. While in English culture, they are just three mon plants and cannot give people any association. People in Chinese and English culture have different understanding of color. For example (3), “red” is the kind of color Chinese admire and has the meaning of luck, success, faithfulness and wealth, etc. This phenomenon can be explained from the angle of culture. In Chinese culture, Chinese special admiration for red originates from people’s worship and desire for the sun in ancient times. And our forebears’ attachment for the red sunshine is native. Therefore the positive meaning represented by red naturally es into being. For example, in ancient times, the house, the clothes, and the carts the influential officials lived in , wore and sat in were respectively called “朱門”, “朱衣”, “朱軒”.In modern times, people use “分紅” to refer to the profits distributed to the business cooperators. On the contrary, in English culture, red is a negative word. Because red is also the color of blood, and in the mind of English, blood is the liquid of life, once one bleeds, the flower of life will soon wither. Therefore, they often associate “red” with “violence” and “danger”. Then there are “the red rules of tooth and claw”, “red revenge”, “a red battle”, “red hand” etc.[25] All of these expressions show that red is a kind of unlucky color in English culture. Besides, because of traditional cultural differences, metaphors on love in Chinese and English are entirely different. For example (4), in both Chinese and English, there is a metaphorical concept——“Love is a journey”(愛情是旅程). Then English say “we cannot turn back now”。 in Chinese, there is a similar expression: “我們再也回不去了”《十八春》（張愛玲）. However, the connotations of these two expressions are pletely opposite. In the former, love is pared to journey metaphorically, which means that lovers must overe the difficulties in the love journey together, otherwise they cannot maintain their love. What the expression emphasizes is the determination that lovers strive shoulder by shoulder. While in the latter, the expression implies the speaker’s confusion. Though the lovers regret for their departing love, they cannot go back like before any more.[26] Thirdly, some metaphors have historical and cultural backgrounds. In both Chinese and English, there are many expressions implying rich historical and cultural backgrounds and produce various associations. For example (5), in Chinese, we say “說曹操，曹操就到”, “暗渡陳倉”, “東施效顰”, “臥薪嘗膽”, “負(fù)荊請罪”, “四面楚歌”. Each of these allusions and idioms contains a great deal of historical and cultural information. While English say “meet one’s Waterloo” (慘遭失敗), “ That’s all Greek to me” (一竅不通). The story of “meet one’s Waterloo” can be tracked back to June8, 1815, when the allied forces of Britain and Germany crushed Napolean’s troops in Waterloo, south of Belgium. Later, this expression can be used to describe any situation when one encounters a total defeat. English historical allusions mostly originated from Greek myth. For example (6), as long as we say “銀河”, “天河”, we will associate the folk story about that the Altair and the Vega meet on over this gutter. While English will call “the milky way”, which es from the Greek myth. It refers to both the road formed by the dripping milk when Queen Hera fed Hercules, a warrior with great strength, and a milky road from the human world into the palace in the universe.[27] Fourthly, metaphors give expression to people’s way of living. Researches on the connotative meanings of animals in Chinese and English cultures also reveal the impact of metaphor on people’s living. For example (7), in Chinese, we often encounter such expressions like “像老黃牛一樣干活”, “氣壯如?！? “鞭打快?！?etc. While if expressing the same meaning, English will say “work like a horse”, “as strong as a horse”, “flog a willing horse”. Why Chinese and English use two different images? It is because that usually Chinese use cattle to plow, while English horses. Cattle and horses respectively bee the good helper of Chinese and English in farming, so there are usages about them above.[28] And since horses in ancient China are mainly used for riding and war, the associative meaning of horse in Chinese is that it can be ridden and it runs fast, which gives rise to the expression like “馬上”, “馬到成功” and “一馬當(dāng)先”. Fifthly, metaphors reflect people’s religious beliefs. Religion is an important source of metaphorical expression. As Christianity is the main spiritual support of westerners and is critical for the formation of English culture, it has penetrated every aspect of English social life, including the English language. And it is manifested most obviously in En