学英语是每个人都绕不开的，也是应该的。如果要学好英文，离不开字典，每逢疑难都要请教字典。但是，字典也不是万能的，有很多人写英文标语，创作板报就是查字典的产物，读起来不太合适；当英文达到比较高的水平时，会发现字典不够用了。

提高英文高级手段是加大英文原文的阅读量，在上下文中理解单词的意思，而不是局限在字典上，这一点是与汉语相同的。

书归正传，牡丹路上地产中介牌子拽英文"struggle for a better future"，他的意思是说"为更好的未来而奋斗"，立意是不错的，这样的翻译是错误的，动词形式的单词struggle这样用是错的。

我们看一个struggle的典型用法(取自关于巴黎圣母院大火的评论文章 《Why the Notre Dame fire is getting the attention America's burned black churches never could》):

The world does not mourn Notre Dame equally — and that’s OK. To some, it was simply a building — a building tied to systems that have harmed so many ancestors. A building that will be rebuilt at tremendous cost while nearly 15 percent of people in France live in poverty, Haiti continues to be bankrupt(海地继续破产), Puerto Rico struggles to rebuild(波多黎各挣扎着重建家园), and Flint still has no water.

上句中Puerto Rico struggles to rebuild中的struggle是动词形式, 其意思是“痛苦挣扎地做”，这就是struggle一词的基本意思。

有的同学说了，字典中struggle也有”奋斗，斗争”的意思，翻译成“波多黎各为重建而奋斗”不是也可以吗？

从例句所在的文章上下文可知，作者的意思是说，巴黎圣母院因为是帝国主义、殖民主义的象征，在发生大火后众多的公司和政府都关心它的重建，但是波多黎各人因为是比较边缘化的居民，他们在遭受到飓风Maria袭击后，损失惨重，其重建工作却无人问津，困难重重，进展缓慢，所以译成“波多黎各痛苦挣扎着重建家园”恰如其分。如果说“波多黎各为重建而奋斗”则带有激励、鼓励的意思，与原文的意思不符。

分析过例句后，再看本文主题的句子：为美好未来而奋斗（struggle for a better future）。这样的英文翻译，也是极其错误的。“Struggle for a better future”的中文意思是“很难有一个好的未来”。

有的同学嚷嚷开了，为什么是“为美好未来而痛苦挣扎”，而不是“为美好未来而奋斗”，字典上明明有“奋斗”的意思嘛。

为了透彻理解struggle这个英文词的基本意思和延伸意思，我们下面结合例句解释。动词形式单词Struggle意思大概可以与下面的汉语词语对应：艰难前行，苦苦支撑，困难重重，举步维难，艰难度日等等。

动词形式单词Struggle例句：

1）Liu Shijin, a member of the People's Bank of China's monetary policy committee, told an online forum on Sunday that the world's second largest economy may have to deal with "quasi-stagflation" the rest of this year and into 2022, if demand continues to struggle(继续艰难前行) and the cost of goods leaving Chinese factories stays high.

上例句中的struggle翻译成艰难前行或艰难应对，其实也是痛苦挣扎的意思。但绝对不是奋斗的意思，因为全句意思是，央行官员李世锦表示，如果年底到2022年这段时间，如果中国经济需求仍艰难低迷，或许不得不采取措施应对“准滞胀”状态，翻译成奋斗就与上下文不符了。

2)The UK economy, struggling with supply chain disruptions and high energy prices(因供应链和高能源价格而苦苦支撑), expanded by 1.3% in the quarter, down from growth of 5.5% in the previous three-month period when many coronavirus restrictions were lifted.

上例句中的struggle翻译成苦撑或艰难前行，其实也是痛苦挣扎的意思。从上下文可知，描述的是英国经济在疫情肆虐情况下的困难情况，这个struggle也是用在艰难应对的语境。

3)To add to the problem, many truck drivers have struggled to reach ports in China to pick up containers because of travel restrictions and Covid testing requirements(由于旅行限制和检测要求，卡车司机到达中国港口取箱一直困难重重). Shipping giant Maersk warned in an advisory last month that trucking services in Shanghai would be "severely" impacted by these restrictions.

4)Hong Kong (CNN Business)A Chinese central official has warned that stagflation could weigh on an already struggling economy(举步维艰的经济) next year. It's the latest sign that the government may be thinking about taking some aggressive steps to address slowing growth, including its first lending rate cut since early 2020.

此例句是struggling 做形容词的情况，意思是举步维艰。

5)"Mr. Buffett: You have spoken out eloquently on the crisis our country now faces in terms of growing income and wealth inequality. You have correctly pointed out that, while working families struggle(工人家庭在艰难度日), the top one percent is doing extremely well," Sanders wrote.

上句是美国参议员桑德斯写给富翁巴菲特的信中的一句，此例句是struggle独立使用，没有其它辅助，也是“痛苦挣扎”的意思。

名词形式单词Struggle例句

struggle可以作名词，其名词用法的翻译比动词形式的翻译要灵活，举例如下。

1)Over just a few days, a new realization dawned in Washington, Europe, Kyiv and Moscow. The war is now transitioning into a long, bitter struggle(长期痛苦的斗争), which will likely cost thousands more lives and tens of billions of dollars. The US strategy is now unequivocal and public -- to weaken Russia to diminish its global threat.

本例句作名词，就“斗争”的意思。

2)“This year, there have been frequent reports of unfavorable news such as diving into selling houses for repayment, or related transactions with local banks. The continuous rumors of Evergrande reflect the struggle(挣扎) and helplessness of Chinese private enterprises.

此例句是struggle 做名词的情况，意思也是“痛苦挣扎”。

3)我看到过有人翻译“奋斗的青春”，译作struggle youth, 也是说的过去的，这个struggle是名词，意思是“奋斗”。

正确翻译“为了美好的未来而奋斗”

先看下图例子：

我们的例句来了：Strive today for a better future(今天奋斗为了美好的明天)。

再来一个例句：Fight hard today for a better future (今天努力奋斗为了美好的明天)

我们甚至用struggle我名词形式，也可以造出正确的句子来：

Today’s struggle is for a better future(今天的奋斗是为了更好的明天)

使用struggle进行造句练习

使用英文单词是中国环境下的英语学习很缺乏的，是短板，是英文不具实用性原因之一。造句却是不可缺的一个板块，缺了这一块你不可能进入熟练掌握英语的地步。下面开始造句。

1）我在农村老家时，每到夏天都为摆脱蚊子而苦苦寻觅。一般地讲，我会选一块平坦的露天地方铺下席子睡觉，那里没有什么蚊子。但是下雨的夏天晚上我必须留在屋里，那里有成群的蚊子，我怎么能安睡并不喂蚊子呢？我痛恨下雨的夏天晚上。

When I lived in the rural homeland, every summer I struggled to find a way to get rid of mosquitoes（struggle的意思是痛下苦功收效甚微，也就是痛苦挣扎）. Typically at a summer night, I would choose a level open air field where there were few mosquitoes to lay the bed and sleep. But at the rainy summer nights I would have to stay in the house where there were swarms of mosquitoes, how could I sleep and don't feed the mosquitoes? I hated that it rains at a summer night.

2)任正非先生早年为华为的生存发展而艰难打拼，所以陪女儿孟晚舟的时间较少。

Mr.Ren Zhengfei struggled for the survival of Huawei（struggle的意思是艰难打拼） in the early years, ao spent less time accompanying his daughter Meng wanzhou.

3)最近的新冠肺炎爆发使上海封城以控制其影响。严格的封城冻结了人的行动，在封城带来的供应链中断的重压下，今年小企业的日子会很难过。 The recent covid-19 outbreak made Shanghai lock down the city to contain the fallout. Strict lockdown freezes people's activities, in the grip of supply chain disruption brought by the lockdown, small companies will struggle this year（struggle的意思是日子很难过）.