With the war in Afghanistan winding down, there has been an intensification of terrorist attacks in China. Most bear the same tell-tale fingerprints.

Most bear the same tell-tale fingerprints 是什么意思呢？請指教。謝謝！

My comments:

If someone is shot dead and the police found a pistol at the scene of the crime, they’ll examine the shot gun – which bears the fingerprints of the perpetrator.

Tell-tale? Tell the tale. That is, fingerprints that tells the story (tale) of the crime.

Back to our example. Most terrorist attacks in China bear the same tell-tale fingerprints means that if you follow the metaphorical fingerprints left behind, you’ll probably be able to trace back to who the terrorists are.

They are usually the same people, too, as they bear the same fingerprints.

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Go to Zhang Xin's column

本文僅代表作者本人觀點，與本網立場無關。歡迎大家討論學術問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發布一切違反國家現行法律法規的內容。

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.