|
分享一个知识点： Reader question: Please explain “red tape” in this sentence – I’m helping you to cut through the red tape. My comments: Strictly speaking, by helping you to cut through the red tape, they’re helping to save you time seeking government approval for, say, a business project. Government approval, you see, involves rubber stamps and signed signatures from officials who are in charge of overseeing the said project. That in turn, involves what is called paperwork, or red tape. All necessary procedures, bureaucrats say. Formalism, if you ask the public. Or sheer bureaucracy. In the old days in England, governmental papers were sealed and bound with red tape; hence “red tape” has been synonymous with bureaucracy. In all fairness, bureaucracy is not just prevalent in government. It exists to one high degree or another in all organizations. It’s there in every office, committee and company. It is everywhere because red tape makes bureaucrats appear more important than they really are. The essential job of a government office clerk, you see, is really nothing more than a public service. In other words, it’s a chore and not a well-paying chore if you ask them. When people ask for a stamp, the clerk presses the rubber against a piece of paper. When people ask for names to be signed on the paper, they sign them. | 
