The scene had struck too close to home, to his own philandering and to his young women.

My comments:

“Home” is where we live. Anything happens to our home affects us at heart, i.e. very deeply. If, therefore, something strikes too close to home, it becomes personal, something we cannot shake off easily emotionally, something we can no longer be objective about. Usually it’s about some unpleasant truth that’s too much for someone to take.

In the example above, the “scene” reveals too much – so much about his own philandering that his young women will probably find it hard to view.

To them, the “scene” looks too (unpleasantly) real.

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Go to Zhang Xin's column

本文僅代表作者本人觀點，與本網(wǎng)立場無關(guān)。歡迎大家討論學(xué)術(shù)問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發(fā)布一切違反國家現(xiàn)行法律法規(guī)的內(nèi)容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin（張欣） has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.