rival: usually suggests an attempt to outdo each other: success that ~ed hers.         outdo超过好过implies a bettering or exceeding，在超越exceed-outstrip组


compete: stresses a struggle for an objective that may be conscious but is typically a quite impersonal striving: athletes ~ing in college sports.                conscious有意识的，没有译出


vie: suggests a less intense effort but a more concious awareness of an opponent than compete: ~d with one another for her attention.                to vie with one another是固定搭配，表示争着、争先恐后，如bourgeois, whether conservative or ultrademocratic, vied with one another in heaping slanders upon him资产者---无论是保守派还是极端民主派---都纷纷争先恐后地诽谤他，摘自speech at the graveside of Karl Max在马克思墓前的讲话      


emulate: implies a conscious effort to equal or surpass one that serves as a model: strove to ~ his teachers.


rival匹敌媲美: 试图超过(outdo)对方，compete竞争: 强调争夺特定目标，通常非个人目标，vie竞争争先恐后: 其强度弱，但(对对手的)意识强，amulate仿效: 指追赶或超越模范


记忆方法: 1) 首字母RECV是接收接受receive的标准缩写，有能力的人愿意接受竞争<==竞争

               2) 竞争的意思是努力追赶超越mean to strive to equal or surpass.首字母RECV是接收接受receive的标准缩写，有能力的人愿意接受竞争<==竞争