Reader question: Please explain this sentence: “We have to be honest; we’re expecting some eye rolls.” Some eye rolls? My comments: Apparently the speaker concedes that what they’re proposing will cause some disagreement, even disapproval. In other words, upon hearing it, some people may raise their eye brows and roll their eyes. When we hear something odd, jarring, shocking or disagreeable, or just plain boring, one of our reactions is that we look upward and roll our eyeball from side to side, and perhaps shrug our shoulders also. This happens a lot during meetings. For instance, the speaker on the podium says something mildly shocking, and, if you observe closely, some people in the audience may roll their eyes or raise their eyebrows. This reaction is automatic and the expression reveals either one’s surprise, boredom, contempt or disapproval, as the case may be. Usually disapproval, I may add. If we hear something nice and agreeable, we smile instead. Anyways, it’s safe to say that people roll their eyes, for example, when they hear something mildly shocking or annoying. If you hear something really shocking, like, hearing Donald Trump saying something, anything about women, for instance, you do not roll your eyes but drop your jaw instead. Yes, you let your lower jaw drop and stay that way, open mouthed and utterly in shock. |