compare

compare to, compare with

compare to和compare with都可作“与…比较”解,且在cannot compare结构中接with和to意思相同。它们的区别是：

1.compare with侧重把两个事物进行横向比较,求其共同之处或不同之处,且多用于具体事物; compare to侧重于把两个事物归纳到同一范围里去,以便突出其相同的属性,且多用于抽象事物。例如:

Social life in a village cannot compare to〔with〕 that of a large city.

乡村的社交生活是不能与大城市的 社交生活相比拟的。

The teacher compared my composition with another student's one.

老师把我的作文与另一个同学的作 文做了比较。

Compared to many other women, she was really lucky.

与许多其他女人相比,她的确挺幸运。

2.表示“比喻,比作”的意思时,只能用compare to; 表示“比得上”时,只能用compare with。

compare, collate, contrast, resemble

这四个词都有“比较”的意思。它们的区别是：

compare意为“比较”,着重“相似之处”; contrast意为“对比”,着重“相异处”; collate表示“对照”,强调认真仔细,细致入微,常用于书报的校勘; resemble意为“类似”,着重强调视觉上感觉相像。例如:

Compare these examples of Rembrandt's early and late styles.比较这些代表伦勃朗早期和晚期风格的作品。

Collate a new edition with an earlier edition.将新版本与旧版本详细比较。

I contrasted John's report card with Mary's to show him how poorly he was doing.我把约翰的成绩单同玛丽的作一下对比,以示他的成绩多么坏。

That boy resembles his mother.那男孩酷似他的妈妈。

compare with, contrast with

这两个短语意思并不相同,前者意为“可与…相比”; 后者意为“同…形成对比〔反差〕”。例如:

Her actions contrasted sharply with her promises.她的行为和她的诺言形成了强烈的反差。