11月30日，外交部发言人华春莹在例行记者会上回答BBC记者提问时指出：

（图片来源：外交部网站）

我也希望包括BBC在内的媒体，以后说到人权问题时，不应只把摄像头对准中国“鸡蛋里挑骨头”，而应该把视野放宽一点，对在一些西方国家发生的侵犯人权行为也加大报道力度，而不是熟视无睹、视而不见、保持沉默或有选择性地失声。

If the BBC is not biased, it should also condemn the brutal crimes committed by some Australian soldiers in Afghanistan. This is what a truly just, objective, conscientious and socially responsible media outlet should do. I also hope that the media, including BBC, should not only zoom in their lenses on human rights issues in China to find quarrel in a straw, but also broaden their horizons to human rights violations committed in some western countries, instead of turning a blind eye to them or keeping silent on some of the violations, if not all of them.

在这段话里，外交部将“鸡蛋里挑骨头”译为“find quarrel in a straw”。straw除了指稻草、吸管外，还可以指一文不值的东西。find quarrel in a straw直译就是在一文不值的事中找事儿，和中文的“鸡蛋里挑骨头”的意思比较吻合。

那么，“鸡蛋里挑骨头”除了翻译为“find quarrel in a straw”之外，还有哪些别的译法？下面跟随Yee君一起来看~

find fault with从字面意思上就能看出来，是“找茬、没事儿找事儿”的意思，与“鸡蛋里挑骨头”意思比较接近，也有挑剔、批评、抱怨的意思。

例句：

He loved best to find fault with me.

他最喜欢找我的茬儿。

There was not a single thing about her that one could find fault with.

在她身上找不出一点让人家说长道短的地方。

fault-picking/ fault-finding也是类似的意思，指the act of looking for faults in sb/sth，找岔子、挑错，特别是在小事儿上，也就是吹毛求疵或鸡蛋里挑骨头的意思。

例句：

The fault-finding research fellow fascinated by fantasy devised a fatal but infeasible plan.

那个对幻想很着迷而且爱挑毛病的研究员，设计了一个重大但是却不可行的计划。

nit-pick 指to raise petty objections or concern oneself with insignificant details，在无关紧要的事情上提出异议，即吹毛求疵的意思，比较书面化。

例句：

The critics are nit-picking his latest article word by word.

评论家们对他发表的新文章咬文嚼字，吹毛求疵。

Don't be nitpicking.

别太吹毛求疵。

fussy about sth指的是too concerned or worried about details or standards, especially unimportant ones，无谓担心的、大惊小怪的、挑剔的，强调的是无事自扰的担忧或挑剔。

例句：

Okay, I thought the restaurant was fantastic, and you were the fussy snob who was impossible to please.

行吧，我觉得这间餐厅超棒，可惜你是个难以取悦的麻烦篓子。

I'm fussy about who I meet.

不是任何人我都想见。

（图片来源：视觉中国）

choosy源自choose，是口语化的词汇，意为careful in choosing, difficult to please，精挑细选的、爱挑剔的、难以取悦的。choosy兼具褒义和贬义，需要根据语境判断。

例句：

I'm very choosy about my clothes.

我对自己的衣着很讲究。

Don't be so choosy. Nothing's perfect.

金无足赤，就别这么挑剔了。

picky意为挑剔的、难伺候的，比较非正式和口语化，牛津词典释义为liking only particular things and difficult to please。常用搭配有pick on sb/sth。

例句：

You are just picking on me!

你就是在找我的茬儿！

We should apologize for it even though the customer is very picky.

尽管顾客很挑剔，但是我们应该为此道歉。

critical带有不赞成的情感色彩，critical of sb/sth即expressing disapproval of sb/sth and saying what you think is bad about them，除了指批评的、批判性的，还有挑剔的意思。

例句：

My boss is very critical and gets upset whenever I make a mistake.

我的老板非常挑剔，只要我一犯错他就生气。

The intensely critical spirit is often the narrow-minded and ignorant one.

极爱吹毛求疵的人往往是心胸狭窄和无知的人。

carp作动词时词意是to keep complaining about sb/sth in an annoying way，指挑剔、找茬儿、吹毛求疵（作名词时指鲤鱼）。常用搭配有carp at sb和carp about sth。

例句：

I don’t want top carp about the way you did.

我不想对你的方法吹毛求疵。

He was constantly carping at me.

他总是找我的茬儿。

hair-splitting按字面理解是“撕开一根头发”，牛津词典给出的释义是the act of giving too much importance to small and unimportant differences in an argument，表示过于强调微不足道的分歧，也就是吹毛求疵。

例句：

Many of the distinctions Harold makes are not just academic hair-splitting, but are key to truly understanding the core concepts behind that.

Harold 所做的辨析并非学究式的吹毛求疵，他真正理解了其背后核心概念的关键。

This leads to endless hair-splitting.

如此导致了无穷无尽的吹毛求疵。

censorious /senˈsɔːriəs/ 源自censor（审查员、审查、审视、删减），用法上较为正式，牛津词典释义为tending to criticize people or things a lot，即爱挑剔、吹毛求疵的。

例句：

Despite strong principles he was never censorious.

虽然他原则性很强，可从来不会吹毛求疵。

Be more understanding and less censorious.

多体谅，少责难。

小伙伴们，你们还知道其他表示“鸡蛋里挑骨头”的英文表达吗？欢迎留言与我们分享哦~

*注：华春莹答记者问中英双语转自外交部官网，词汇释义摘自牛津词典。