VOA慢速英语2019--A 'Struggle' to Understand

 

In today's Ask a Teacher, Learning English follower¹ Shahram is “struggling” with a certain word. He wrote to us:

Question:

Please explain the word "struggle." I get confused about it.

Answer:

Thanks for writing, Shahram! We hope you will be completely at peace with "struggle" by the end of this program!

Struggle can be a verb or a noun. A simple definition of the verb “struggle” is to work very hard to try to gain something. You might use all your energy struggling for control of a ball in a sport, for example. Or you might spend a lot of time and brain power searching for a solution to a problem.

Here are some example sentences:

“My son is struggling to pass math this term. He works for hours every night to understand fractions.”

Or:

“The baby bird had to struggle to spread its wings and fly.”

Struggle is often used in terms of moral, social and political goals. A recent VOA Learning English headline read: “Women with Albinism Struggle for Acceptance.”

The story told about a movement to end discrimination against people with a medical condition that leaves their skin very light in color.

Next, we turn to the meaning of the word struggle when it is used as a noun. Merriam Webster’s online dictionary defines the noun struggle as “an act of strongly motivated striving.”

When struggle is a noun, “the” or “a” often comes before it. For example, we can return to our earlier sentence about the math student.

“It is a struggle for my son to learn fractions.”

Struggle as a noun is often used when people are talking about social movements. You might have heard the phrase “the struggle for civil rights in America,” or “the struggle to end apartheid” or “a struggle for freedom.”

A commonly used term in political news reports, is “power struggle.” This often refers to different political parties or individuals fighting to control a government or a policy issue.

Hope that helps, Shahram! And, to all our English Learners, please keep your questions coming to Ask A Teacher.

I’m Caty Weaver².

Words in This Story

confused - adj. unable to understand?

fraction - n. mathematics : a number (such as 1/2 or 3/4) which indicates that one number is being divided by another?

motivate - v. to give (someone) a reason for doing something?

strive - n. to try very hard to do or achieve something

apartheid- n. a former social system in South Africa in which black people and people from other racial groups did not have the same political and economic rights as white people and were forced to live separately from white people?

refer - v. to have a direct connection or relationship to

1 follower   

n.跟随者；随员；门徒；信徒

参考例句：

• He is a faithful follower of his home football team.他是他家乡足球队的忠实拥护者。
• Alexander is a pious follower of the faith.亚历山大是个虔诚的信徒。

2 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。