说到底,这是小事一桩。
After all,this is a tempest in a teapot.
My comments:
Tempest is the word for a storm of the most violent kind, with wild gusts of wind blowing off roofs, uprooting trees and whipping up huge waves in the sea, things of that nature.
The tea cup, holding a mere mouthful of water, isn’t big enough for stirring up a tempest in, obviously.
Hence, if you try to whip up a tempest in a teapot, you are, to use another cliché, trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.
In other words, you’re making a fuss, taking issue with something so small that it, quite frankly, should be an issue at all.
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Take something with a pinch of salt
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About the author:
Zhang Xin(张欣) has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.