前两天和Michael在聊天，碰巧看到我的baby sister（小妹妹）一脸不
高兴地走过来，问她怎么了，她说本来most of her classmates like her
taste every time she wears a new dress （每次穿新衣服，大家都很喜
欢她的品位），但总有个女孩批评她穿的不够得体。我安慰了一下她。
Michael 问明了原因之后说：That girl must be a nitpicker.
　　
　 看到我对nitpicker感到很疑惑，他赶紧解释：
nitpicker means a kind of person who always criticizes others
by noticing small and unimportant differences.
原来这个nitpicker就是表示那些“爱吹毛求疵”的人啊！

　　Michael接着又给我讲了他的一个经历。他曾经是个记者，碰到过一个很
爱挑剔的编辑对他说：
I hate to sound like a nitpicker, but I found a comma missing in your forth paragraph and another comma missing down in the tenth paragraph. You should be more careful from now on.
“我很讨厌自己听起来象是在挑剔，但是我发现你文章的第四段里少了一个逗
号，在第十段里也少了个逗号，你以后应该再仔细些。”

　 后来我查了字典，发现nit竟然是指“虱子下的卵”，那么nitpicker在字
面上就是“挑虱子卵的人”！我对这个词发生了兴趣，到处找来源，结果只见
到一种猜测的说法，就是nitpicker让人联想到公园里关到笼子的猴子，整日
无所事事，只好互相挑虱子。倒霉的猴子，竟然让人冠上“吹毛求疵”的名声了！


用心记忆：　
　 nitpicker means a kind of person who always criticizes others by noticing small and unimportant differences.

　 I hate to sound like a nitpicker, but I found a comma missing in your forth paragraph and another comma missing down in the tenth paragraph. You should be more careful from now on.