Tip of the iceberg?_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Tip of the iceberg?

See? The iceberg we actually see is only a small hint of the whole thing.

Hence by extension and analogy, if a problem is described as the tip of the iceberg, then it indicates that the problem could be much larger and much more serious than what meets the eye.

This larger and more serious problem, however, is currently undetected because, as it is with the iceberg, it is blow surface and hidden from view.

All right, here are more media examples to further hammer the point home:

1. Awareness about human trafficking in the United States has grown extensively, with the annual number of calls to a national trafficking hot line more than tripling – from about 5,800 calls in 2008 to nearly 21,000 in 2017.

During those five years, calls as well as e-mails – ranging from labor trafficking victims seeking help to truckers calling in tips about young girls being prostituted – generated information on more than 9,000 cases of trafficking. (Some of these cases were later confirmed, while others met a series of criteria indicating trafficking.) Involving more than 19,000 possible victims, the cases were analyzed in a report released Thursday by the Polaris Project in Washington, which operates the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) Hotline.

Among the cases, 64 percent involved sex trafficking, 22 percent involved labor trafficking, and nearly 3 percent involved both.

“Human trafficking is happening in every state, all across the United States ... and this report is just showing the tip of the iceberg,” says Bradley Myles, CEO of Polaris Project. To bring resources to bear on the problem, the anti-trafficking field is “dependent on the community to be the eyes and ears and to tell us when they see something suspicious or ... know about a survivor." He adds, "It all starts with a call.”