concentrate
verbVerb Forms
Phrasal Verbs| present simple I / you / we / they concentrate | |
| he / she / it concentrates | |
| past simple concentrated | |
| past participle concentrated | |
| -ing form concentrating |
- [intransitive, transitive]
to give all your attention to something and not think about anything else 集中（注意力）；聚精会神 I can't concentrate with all that noise going on. 吵闹声不绝于耳，我无法集中精神。 - concentrate on something
I struggled to concentrate on my job because I was worried about my son. 我努力集中精力工作，因为我担心我的儿子。 - concentrate on doing something
She tried to concentrate on reading her book but couldn't. 她试图集中精力看书，但没能做到。 - concentrate something
Nothing concentrates the mind better than the knowledge that you could die tomorrow (= it makes you think very clearly). 没有什么比知道自己明天就可能会死去更能让人定下心来去思考种种问题的了。 - concentrate something on something
After 1926 she concentrated her energies on her medical practice. 1926年后，她把精力集中在医疗实践上。 - concentrate something on doing something
I decided to concentrate all my efforts on finding somewhere to live. 我决定全力以赴找个住的地方。
Extra ExamplesI tried to work but I found I couldn't concentrate. 我试图工作但发现不能集中精神。 I was tired and couldn't concentrate properly. 我累了，无法集中精力。 She was sitting at her desk concentrating hard. 她正坐在书桌边，精神高度集中。 She tried to concentrate, but her thoughts kept drifting back to the day before. 她试图集中注意力，但她的思绪一直飘回到前一天。 We were told to concentrate on a black dot in the middle of the screen. 我们被告知要专注于屏幕中间的一个黑点。 We're concentrating even harder on giving quality service this year. 今年我们更加注重提供优质服务。
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadverb- hard
- intensely
- intently
- …
- be unable to
- cannot
- be difficult to
- …
- on
- [transitive] concentrate something + adv./prep.
to bring something together in one place 使…集中（或集合、聚集） Power is largely concentrated in the hands of a small elite. 权力主要集中在少数精英人物的手里。 We need to concentrate resources on the most run-down areas. 我们需要把资源集中用于最衰败的地区。 Fighting was concentrated around the towns to the north. 战斗集中在北方诸城镇的周围进行。 Never concentrate the heat in one place for too long. 切勿将热量集中在一个地方太久。
Extra ExamplesThese jobs are disproportionately concentrated in the service sector. 这些工作过分集中在服务行业。 The immigrant community is strongly concentrated geographically. 移民群体在地域上非常集中。 Most of the country's industry is concentrated in the north. 该国的工业大部份集中在北方。
- [transitive] concentrate something (specialist)
to increase the strength of a substance by reducing its volume, for example by boiling it （使）浓缩
Word Originmid 17th cent. (in the sense ‘bring towards a centre’): Latinized form of concentre, fromcon- ‘together’ + centrum ‘centre’ or from French concentrer ‘to concentrate’. Sense (1) dates from the early 20th cent.