他的臉馬上陰下來,不客氣地打斷我的話:“哼,你干的那些事判個十年八年的完全夠格兒。這么處理你夠寬大的了,可你對自己的罪行卻一點沒認識.
My comments:
Imagine a child reaching for the food before everyone is seated round the family table. That’s when the child’s mother or father may give him a slap on the wrist.
See the point?
A quick slap on the wrist is much better than, say, a slap on the face. Chinese children wanting table manners might have got a slap in the face or a thump on the head, especially in the past.
But the point is, a slap on the wrist is a gentle or mild rebuke, criticism or punishment, not at all severe.
In our example, the guilty person could’ve got 10 years in jail for what he did. Instead, he got a slap on the wrist.
In other words, he got away with it.
Related stories:
pluck a brand from the burning
本文僅代表作者本人觀點,與本網(wǎng)立場無關。歡迎大家討論學術問題,尊重他人,禁止人身攻擊和發(fā)布一切違反國家現(xiàn)行法律法規(guī)的內(nèi)容。
About the author:
Zhang Xin(張欣) 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.