VOA名师答疑2023 mission和assignment的用法

（单词翻译）

Hello!

大家好!

This week on Ask a Teacher, we will answer a question from Aiping about the difference between mission and assignment in one of our stories.

本周《名师答疑》，我们回答爱平提出的问题：在VOA的一篇文章中，mission和assignment有什么区别？

Dear teacher, I read an article by VOA Learning English titled "After Helping¹ Fight COVID-19 US military plans for Next Pandemic.”

亲爱的老师，我读了美国之音慢速英语的一篇文章，标题是《帮助抗击新冠肺炎后，美国军方为下一次大流行制定计划》。

There are two words: “mission “and “assignment.”

其中有两个词：mission和assignment。

Can you tell me the difference between these two words?

你能告诉我这两个词有什么区别吗？

Thanks! Aiping.

谢谢! 爱平。

Dear Aiping, Thank you for your question!

亲爱的爱平，感谢你的提问！

Let us look at these two words within the story.

让我们来看看文章中这两个词的用法。

We will start with the word “mission” and then move onto “assignment.”

我们先讲mission，然后再讲assignment。

Firstly, we have the word “mission.”

首先有mission这个词。

Let us look at how the word “mission” is used in the story:

让我们来看看mission在文章中是怎么用的：

"The United States military deployed² about 24,000 troops to help state and local governments across the country fight COVID-19. That mission has ended, at least for now."

“美国军方部署了大约24000名士兵，帮助全国的州政府和地方政府对抗新冠肺炎。这一任务已经结束，至少目前是这样。”

"And, officials are seeking to learn from the experiences of service members who took part in the COVID-19 mission."

“官员们正在努力学习参与新冠肺炎任务的服役人员的经验。”

"(The patient) is going to get the treatment he needs. That was the mission.

“(病人)将得到他所需要的治疗。这就是我们的任务。”

The word mission in these three sentences from the story refers to the US military’s deployment³ of troops to help local governments fight COVID-19.

文章中这三句话中的mission一词指的是美军出动军队帮助地方政府对抗新冠肺炎。

In this way, we can think of “mission” as an important operation, effort, or task.

因此，我们可以把mission看作是一项重要的行动、努力或任务。

The US military defines⁴ “mission” as “a task together with a purpose.”

美军将mission定义为“一项有目的的集体任务”。

This may be an overall mission or larger goal, like to defend the United States, or it might be a specific task, like helping local governments to fight COVID-19.

这可能是一个总体使命，或者说一个宏观的目标，比如保卫美国，也可能是一项具体的任务，比如帮助地方政府对抗新冠肺炎。

So we can think of “mission” as a larger goal or objective⁵.

因此，我们可以把mission看作一个比较大的目标。

Many organizations and even individual people use the word “mission.”

许多组织甚至个人都使用mission这个词。

For example, The charity’s mission is to provide shelter and food to young people without homes.

例如，该慈善机构的使命是为无家可归的年轻人提供住所和食物。

My mission for the summer is to take an hour-long walk every day.

我夏天的任务是每天走路一小时。

Next, we have the word “assignment.”

接下来，讲assignment这个词。

Let us look at how we use it in the story:

让我们看看在文章中是怎么用这个词的：

"The last military medical team deployed for the pandemic finished its assignment last week at the University of Utah hospital."

“为大流行部署的最后一支军事医疗队上周在犹他大学医院完成了任务。”

In this sentence, “assignment” refers to a specific place where the task or mission is carried out, like the University of Utah hospital.

在这句话中，assignment指的是执行任务或使命的特定地点，如犹他大学医院。

Military units and other employees might have different assignments or jobs in different places.

部队和其他雇员可能在不同的地方有不同的任务或工作。

This is how we can think of the word “assignment,” like a specific job in a specific place.

这就是assignment这个词的意思，就是在特定地方做的特定工作。

To summarize, we use the word “mission” to talk about the overall goal or purpose for an organization or an individual.

总而言之，我们用mission这个词来描述组织或个人的总体目标。

We use the word "assignment" when talking about individual jobs in a specific place.

我们用assignment这个词来谈论特点地方的个别工作。

The two words can overlap⁶ when a person’s assignment (individual job) is helping carry out the mission or larger, overall goal.

当一个人的任务(个别工作)是帮助执行使命或更大的总体目标时，这两个词的语义有重叠。

Please let us know if these explanations and examples have helped you, Aiping!

爱平，请让我们知道这些解释和例句是否对你有帮助！

And that’s Ask a teacher.

以上就是《名师答疑》。

I’m Faith Pirlo.

我是费思·皮尔洛。