考研英语大纲常考词组短语 in a vain attempt
释义：
in a vain attempt 劳而无功的努力;徒劳地尝试
例句：
She closed her eyes tightly in a vain attempt to hold back the tears.
她紧闭双眼，却无法忍住眼泪。
The drafting committee worked through the night in a vain attempt to finish on schedule.
起草委员会徒劳地通宵工作想按期完成工作。
The caged bird flapped its wings in a vain attempt to fly away.
笼子哩的鸟拍打着翅膀想飞走，但却徒劳无功。
Those without umbrellas had covered their heads with plastic bags, towels and books in a vain attempt to stay dry.
有些人没有雨伞，于是用塑料袋、毛巾或书本遮头，试图防雨，结果还是淋湿了。
It was then repeatedly whittled down, finally to just $34 billion, in a vain attempt to win over a few Republicans.
因此，它的启动资金由开始本就不多的790亿美元，反复削减至最终的340亿美元。 可即便如此，也还是没能赢得几个共和党人的支持，白白折腾了一场。
With the starship damaged and unable to take off, Jeremitt and Caterine set out in a vain attempt to find civilization.
因为飞船受损无法起飞，杰里米特和卡特琳试图到四周寻求援助，但是一无所获。
The United States attorney-general is suing her as she sits, in a vain attempt to make her dissolve herself into constituent companies.
美国联邦检察长此刻正在起诉她，要让她把新泽西公司分解成系列子公司，而她却还在坐童车，岂不徒劳？
And thereupon he would get out one or another of his manuscripts, such as "Adventure," and read it over and over in a vain attempt to vindicate the editorial silence.
这样一想他又拿出我自己的稿子，例如《冒险》，反复地研读起来，想探索出编辑们一直沉默的道理。
Instead of going all out in a vain attempt to do everything right the first time, Microsoft recommends starting with only the features absolutely needed to meet the requirements.
这不同于在第一次就要试图将所有事情做对，微软推荐在最开始只需要满足需求中绝对需要的特性。
Japan already has a vast deficit, thanks to years of wasteful public-works projects funded in a vain attempt to revive its sick economy.
More and more rural areas are being buried under concrete in a vain attempt to tackle congestion on motorways and other major routes.
The Fed faces a very dangerous tradeoff: risk higher inflation by expanding the monetary base (currency plus bank reserves) in a vain attempt to lower unemployment.
These ideas try to respond to two chronic worries of Japanese voters: that the economy will continue to slide, and that the construction state will cover what little remains of their country with concrete in a vain attempt to fix the problem.
On a day when thousands of people around the world are preparing to explain how a web cam works to elderly relatives in a vain attempt to wish them a merry Christmas, some may just go straight to the old-fashioned use of a telephone.
The end result could be seen in the twin pictures of Clinton impertinently announcing his peace plan after his successor had already been elected, and Madeleine Albright chasing after Arafat outside the US Embassy in Paris in a vain attempt to get him to return to the negotiating table he had just overturned.