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外刊例句
- There are many dedicated stockpickers who take this social role seriously and see it as a vocation.
有许多专门选股的人认真对待这一社会角色，并将其视为一种职业。
——《经济学人》 - But people on the road to inner light do not find their vocations by asking, what do I want from life?
但是，在寻求内在光明的路上，人们是无法通过询问“我在生活中想要的是什么”来找到职业道路的。
——《纽约时报》
基本释义
[noun] a strong feeling of suitability for a particular career or occupation
[名词] 一种适合某一特定事业或职业的强烈感觉
深入解读
Vocation 是一个与熟词 vacation 十分形似的单词，在前不久推送的 好书推荐 | 一本让你暑假弯道超车的单词书 一文中，小站就一不小心将 vacation 错拼成了 vocation 。
Vocation 一词源自拉丁语 vocare （呼叫），15世纪初经古法语 vocacion （召唤、献祭；使命、天职）进入英语后也是用来表示“圣召、神召”或“使命、天职”，现在主要用来表示认为某种工作或生活方式特别适合自己的“使命感、信心”，以及从事某项职业或活动的“意愿、才能、素质”，常用搭配 vocation for sth ，比如：
- 尽管看见血会使她心里感到有点不舒服，但她却是一位具有强烈使命感的医生。
Though seeing blood makes her feel a bit peculiar inside, she is a doctor with a strong sense of vocation. - 她是教书的材料。她教起书来驾轻就熟，知道如何帮助学生渡过学习瓶颈期。
She has a vocation for teaching. She has taken to teaching like a duck to water and knows how to help students break their learning plateaus.
等到了16世纪50年代后， vocation 开始衍生指“工作、职业”或“生活方式”，同样也是强调认为特别适合自己，尤其是认为特别有价值、值得投入所有的时间和精力或需要极大的奉献精神，比如：
- 研制超级杂交水稻不仅仅是一项工作，而且还是一种职业。
Developing super hybrid rice is not just a job─it's a vocation. - 你干错行了，你本该当演员。你具有演员典型的可塑性强的特征。
You missed your vocation─you should have been an actor. You have an actor's typically malleable features.
值得注意的是，与 vocation 不仅形近而且容易混淆的 avocation 常作为一个正式用语表示“业余爱好”，与 vocation 恰恰相反。
名著用例
Joseph remained to hector over tenants and labourers; and because it was his vocation to be where he had plenty of wickedness to reprove.
约瑟夫继续威吓着佃户与那些干活的，因为呆在一个有好多事他可以骂个没完的地方，就是他的职业。
出自英国女作家艾米莉·勃朗特（Emily Brontë）的小说《呼啸山庄》（Wuthering Heights）。
同近义词
- niche: a comfortable or suitable position in life or employment
- profession: a paid occupation, especially one that involves prolonged training and a formal qualification
- career: an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person's life and with opportunities for progress
