生活中从来就不缺小题大做或大惊小怪的人，或者是为了一鸣惊人，或者是为了声东击西，但无论如何都带有虚假甚至是夸张的成分，缺乏可信度，很容易丧失别人对自己的信任，因此是一种杀敌一万自损八千的做法。
小题大做有反应过激或夸大的成分，因此可以用 overreact，magnify 或 exaggerate 来表示类似小题大做在意思，其中 overreact 是不及物动词，例如：Is the council right to be concerned, or is it overreacting?He always magnifies the problems and inconveniences of travel.They do not grasp the broad situation and spend their time magnifying ridiculous details.他们不去把握大局，而是在细枝末节上花费时间大做文章。The threat of attack has been greatly exaggerated.She was exaggerating the true extent of the problem.
以上单词都不足以充分表达小题大做所涉及的范围和悬殊感，习语 make a mountain out of a molehill 的字面意思是”用鼹丘做一座山“，它既体现了由小到大的差距，又形象地体现了所涉及的范围，用来比喻小题大做或夸大其词再合理不过了，例如：
You're making a mountain out of a molehill. You wrote one bad essay, which doesn't mean you're going to fail.你在小题大做。你写了一篇不好的文章，这并不意味着你会失败。This is a minor setback. Let's not make a mountain of a molehill.
还有一个很形象的习语是 storm/tempest in a teacup/teapot，其中 storm 和 tempest 都表示暴风雨，那么想象一下茶杯里的暴风雨，可不就是小题大做的节奏吗？例如：I find the whole issue about these gender roles a storm in a teacup.I think this is all a storm in a teacup, and there is nothing to worry about.If you ask me, these protests are nothing but a storm in a teapot that's been stoked by a media campaign of misinformation.如果你问我的话，这些抗议活动不过是一场由媒体的小题大做造成的错误宣传。I really think you're making a storm in a teapot over this. It's just a tiny scratch on the car!
形容小事或琐事可以用 trifle，它是一个可数名词，那么小题大做或大惊小怪还可以用 make a fuss over a trifle 来表示，其中的 fuss 的意思跟 overreaction 类似。这句短语的结构跟前面的 make a moutain out of a molehill，因此用它来表示小题大做或大惊小怪也是非常合理的，例如：I don't want to make a fuss over such a trifle.I'm sorry for making a fuss over a trifle.遇事要尽量心平气和去对待，不要反应过激或小题大做，不然很容易犯错，而且常常是一些让自己后悔莫及的错误。
