时差N小时 雪上加霜

 

Imagine a situation where a person has needlesslybeen injured by another. The injured person isnaturally hoping for some help. Instead, the cruelone who injured that person starts shouting terrible, insulting words. Thus, the victim has now beeninjured both physically¹ and emotionally. It is a kindof double injury, making an already bad situationbecome worse.

想象一下，如果一个人毫无理由地被另一个人弄伤了。这个受伤的人自然希望得到一些帮助。但是恰恰相反，这个冷漠的人还向这个受伤的人大声恐吓，说一些侮辱性的话。结果，受害人身体上和心理上都受到了伤害。这是一种双重伤害，使本已糟糕的情况变得更糟。

Now, to use this expression as an idiom, there has to be a situation in which something badcaused by another person becomes worse because of them. There need not be any actualphysical injury, and no one may actually be speaking insulting words. However, it is clearsomeone feels injured in some way, and that injury is being increased, not lessened². Forexample, if a friend breaks your favorite dish, that is a kind of first injury. If that friend thencriticizes you for having cheap, easily broken dishes, that is adding insult to injury.

这种表达方式作为一个成语来使用，是指某人在做出糟糕的事后把情况弄得更糟。在这种情况下，不一定造成什么身体伤害，也不一定有什么侮辱性的语言。但是，的确有人因某种方式受到了伤害，而且伤害非但没有减少而且还加重了。例如，如果有朋友打翻了你最爱的碗碟，你会感到伤心。但是如果那个朋友接着讽刺你专买那些便宜的和容易破碎的碗碟，这对你而言可就是雪上加霜了。

1 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

2 lessened   

减少的，减弱的

参考例句：

• Listening to the speech through an interpreter lessened its impact somewhat. 演讲辞通过翻译的嘴说出来，多少削弱了演讲的力量。
• The flight to suburbia lessened the number of middle-class families living within the city. 随着迁往郊外的风行，住在城内的中产家庭减少了。