sympathy: is the most general term, ranging in meaning from friendly interest or agreement in taste to emotional identification: felt ~ for his political beliefs.     (identification认同: 认为自己和被认同对象有相同属性to attribute to oneself the characteristics of another person,如国家认同精神认同，如her emotional identification with the play's heroine她对女主人公的情感认同)


pity: implies tender or sometimes slightly contemptuous sympathy or sorrow for one in distress: he felt a tender ~ for her.    (tender 1温柔亲切=gentle,kind,loving， 2软嫩easy to bite or chew， 3 容易疼痛painful，例1 tender words温柔的话语，例2 cook for a minimum of 2 hours until the meat is tender至少煮两个小时直到煮到肉变软嫩为止，例3 my tummy felt very tender我肚子一碰就疼)


compassion: implies tenderness and understanding and a desire to aid or spare: treated the sick with great ~; BUT can be quite impersonal in its reference: justice tempered with ~. 宽严相济


ruth: is likely to suggest pity or compassion resulting from the softening of a stern or indifference spirit: an old man ignorant of the healing effects of ~.


empathy: implies a capacity for vicarious feeling, but the feeling need not be one of sorrow not involve agreement: lacked capacity for ~ for the plight of others.  (vicarious从别人体验中获得,如he got a vicarious thrill out of watching his son score the winning goal他看着儿子射入获胜的一球，也同样感到欣喜)


sympathy同情: 最通用,范围从兴趣爱好一致到情感认同(emothional identification)，pity可怜: 同情或悲伤于他人痛苦，表示得温柔或稍微轻视，compassion同情: 除了温柔理解，还希望帮助或饶恕(新4最后一篇讲对死刑犯的同情用的这个词)，也可以泛指同情，ruth怜悯: 表示不再严厉冷漠，变得怜悯同情，empathy分享他人体验: 不一定悲伤或赞同。


记忆方法: 1）首字母SPCRE添加一个T即SPECTR，其中spect是词根表示看，tr想成他人，看他人<==同情


         2）同情的意思是分享分担他人利益痛苦mean a feeling for or a capacity for sharing in the interests or distress of another.