第3个回答 2013-12-07
1)Plug one's ears while stealing a bell（掩耳盗铃）
In the Spring and Autumn period, a thief had stolen a bell and intended to carry it away on his back, but the bell was too bulky and heavy to be carried, so he tried to break it into pieces with a hammer to make it easier for carrying. On his first hit, however, the bell made a loud noise. He thus feared that the ringing sound might be heard by someone, who would come to rob him of his bell. His fright made him plug his own ears, while hitting the bell with the hammer. The bell sound was, nevertheless, audible to others and therefore to stuff his ears for the purpose of stealing a bell was a stupid action it is as foolish as burying one's head in the sand.
2)Draw a snake and add feet to it (画蛇添足)
An official of the ancient State of Chu awarded a pot of wine to his men after the ceremony of Spring Sacrifice. One man said, “We have only one pot of wine. It‘s not enough for all of us but enough for one. Let’s decide who'll have the wine by drawing a snake on the ground. He who finishes first will have the wine."
The others agreed. Very soon, one man finished his snake. He was about to drink the wine when he saw the others were still busy drawing. He said happily, “How slowly you are! I still have enough time to add feet to my snake.” But before he finished the feet, another man finished his snake and grabbed the pot from him, saying, “Whoever has seen a snake with feet? Yours is not a snake. So the wine should be mine!” He drank the wine. The man adding the feet to the snake had to give in and could only regret his foolishness.
From that story comes the idiom "Draw a snake and add feet to it". Now people use this idiom to illustrate the truth that going too far is as bad as not going far enough.