【字面理解】茶杯里的風暴
【英文解析】a small or unimportant problem which is treated as much more serious than it really is
【中文解析】杯水風波;小題大做;大驚小怪
【典型例句】① The people next door are continually quarreling, but it is usually a storm in a teaaq).隔壁的人總是不斷爭 吵,但經(jīng)常都是小題大做。
② Don’t worry. It’s a storm in a teacup. Everyone will have forgotten about it by tomorrow.別擔心,這不過是茶杯 里掀風浪,到明天大家就都把這事給忘了。
【注釋】出自法國哲學家和思想家孟德斯鳩(Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu)的名言。有一次,他 聽說圣馬力諾(San Marino)發(fā)生了政治動亂,就用 “茶杯里的風暴”來評論這件事。因為圣馬力諾是歐洲最小的共和國,只有一萬人口,孟德斯鳩認為那里 的動亂對整個歐洲局勢無足輕重[u。變體:a tempest in a teapot or barrel; a teapot tempest; a storm in a cream-bowl; a storm in a wash-hand basin。