Ask & Learn聞問切英語口語:生活艱難

讀者 Winnie 寄來句子：生活艱難 the regular, law-abiding, non-tycoon, squeezed on all sides, not-immune-from-the-law Hong Kong people that just try to get by day to day. Winnie 再問：squeezed on all sides 和 to get by 是什么意思？

Squeeze 是大力緊握，就好像把檸檬握在掌心用力地，西餐中有一種用來擠檸檬汁的餐具就叫l(wèi)emon squeezer.

引伸出來，squeeze 就有壓榨、壓迫、剝削的意思。句子中指香港市民 squeezed on all sides，就是要承受來自四方八面的壓力，苦不堪言。

To get by 解作勉強(qiáng)應(yīng)付，還過得去。 這個詞可以用在個別的困難，例如考試：

Jimmy does not expect good grades this time. He just wants to get by. Jimmy 這次考試并不要求高分，只要及格就行了。

另一方面，to get by 也可以用在解決生計的困難：

Earning only minimum wage, Tom can hardly get by.Tom 的收入只是最低工資，只能勉強(qiáng)混過去。

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