“Oh no, look at the mess the kids made in the hall! I knew they weren’t old enough to stay home without a babysitter.”
“That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Wait until you see what they did in the kitchen!”
An iceberg represents a problem or a bad thing. Icebergs are very large, and most of the ice is underwater, so you can’t see it. So even though an iceberg looks big, it is actually much bigger than we can see. We say something is “just the tip of the iceberg” when it is only the small, visible part of a larger problem.
「キャー、子供たちがこんなに玄関を散らかしてる！やっぱりベビーシッターなしでお留守番はまだ早かった！」
「そんなの氷山の一角にすぎないよ。台所を見てみろ！」
氷山とは問題など悪いことを表します。氷山はとても大きくて、ほとんどの部分は水面下に隠れて見えません。なので、氷山の見えている部分が大きくても、実際のサイズはその数倍です。大きな問題の一部分が見える時「氷山の一角 Tip of the Iceberg 」と言います。
