attain

　　Attain is a verb that means to accomplish, reach, or achieve something through effort. You can attain a goal that you set for yourself or attain a high-ranking position at your job.

　　Attain是一个动词，意思是通过努力完成或达到某事。你可以attain一个你为自己设定的目标，或者在工作中attain一个高职位。

　　For example,

　　● After six months, I attained my goal of losing 15 pounds.

　　六个月后，我达到了减掉15磅的目标。

　　● Joe worked so hard he attained the position of Vice President.

　　乔工作很努力，因此获得了副总裁的职位。

　　As you can see, attain clearly has to do with the effort and labor that is put into an objective.

　　你可以看出来，attain非常明确的需要你投入努力或劳动。

　　obtain

　　Obtain is also a verb, but it means to get, to acquire, or to gain possession of something.

　　obtain也是一个动词，但是它的意思是得到，获取或者获得某物的所有权。

　　For example,

　　● I obtained the latest copy of The Wall Street Journal.

　　我拿到了最新一期的《华尔街日报》。

　　● The robbers obtained weapons to commit the crime.

　　强盗们获得了作案的武器。

　　● Police obtained a warrant to search the house.

　　警方获得搜查这所房子的搜查令。

　　While attain implies there was some effort put forth to produce an outcome, that is not necessarily the case with obtain. Take our example above, and suppose you obtained the latest Wall Street Journal. You could have found it on the side of the street or picked up a free copy at a local diner. There is nothing about obtain that implies a level of difficulty.

　　“attain”意味着付出了一些努力来产生一个结果，但“obtain”并不一定如此。以上面的例子为例，假设你获得了最新的《华尔街日报》。你可以在路边找到这本书，也可以在当地的餐馆里得到一本免费的。obtain并没有困难的含义。

　　There is, however, a fine line between these two words, especially when you attain something that is, itself, closely related to the item that is being obtained.

　　然而，这两个词之间有一条微妙的界限，尤其是当你attain某种东西，而它本身又与obtain的东西密切相关时。

　　For example,

　　● In college you work hard to attain a degree.

　　在大学里，你通过努力学习获得学位。

　　-but-

　　但是

　　● Once you graduate you will obtain your diploma.

　　你一毕业就能拿到毕业证书。

　　This is a very subtle difference, but it is important to recognize it. In this example you are working hard to attain your academic degree, a B.A., B.S., M.A., Ph.D., etc., but you physically obtain and take ownership of the piece of paper that is your diploma once you graduate.

　　这是一个非常细微的差别，但重要的是要认识到在这个例子中，你正在努力学习以获得(attain)学士学位,学士,硕士等等...但是，一旦你毕业，你就可以实际获得(obtain)并拥有你的毕业证书这张纸。

　　Similarly, many countries are working to attain nuclear technology, but the nuclear weapons themselves can only be obtained.

　　类似的，许多国家正在努力attain核技术，但核武器本身只能obtain。

　　A good way to keep these two words a part from each other is to remember that “to attain something” is to achieve or accomplish something. Achieve and Accomplish both start with A’s and both involve working to see a goal fulfilled.

　　记住这两个词的区别，最重要的是记住attain是需要努力完成的。Achieve(取得)和Accomplish(完成)的首字母都是a，attain里也有a。