9. ... the Saudi regime has recently begun a well-publicized clean-up drive. The campaign,though, is largely cosmetic; payoffs continue unchecked.
                                                                 —Time, March 16, 1981, p. 45
可見，這“cosmetic”乃是“裝樣子”、“擺門面”的意思。表示這種做表面文章。旨在掩飾的“ cosmetic"往往同“gesture" 一起用在 “cosmetic gesture”一語中，更見相得益彰，請看：

10. cosmetic gesture (fig. ) ： the effort to make something look good, or better than it is.
                                                                一 TSOCEJV7651

11. Cambodia's reclusive President Lon No. 1 ordered a last ditch cabinet reshuffle and sacked his armed-forces commander, but those cosmetic gestures seemed unlikely to turn the tide of battle or win many votes in Congress.
                                                               — Newsweek, March 24, 1975

12. The question now being asked in congress is whether the move implies a genuine commitment to human-rights issues or is merely a cosmetic gesture to placate comgressional liberals.
                                             —The Christian Science Monitor, April 28, 1975.
上述兩例中的“cosmetic gesture”似可譯作"表面文章”，不知讀者以為然否？