predicament: suggests a difficult situation usually offering no satisfactory or easy solution: the ~ posed by increasing automation.


dilemma: implies a predicament presenting a choice between equally unpleasant or unacceptable alternatives: faced with the ~ of putting him in a nursing home or caring for him ourselves.   小型疗养院，尤指私立养老院


quandary: stresses the puzzlement and perplexity of one faced by a dilemma: in a ~ about how to repair it.    （puzzle难住，表示不知道如何解决，如the problem puzzled me不知如何解决这个问题，perplex困惑，更进一步增加了不安焦虑的意思adds the implications of worry and uncertainty，如his odd behavior perplexes his family他奇怪的行为令家人困惑）


plight: suggests an unfortunate or trying situation: a study of the ~ of the homeless.


fix, jam: are informal equivalent of plight but are more likely to suggest involvement through some error, fault, or wrongdoing: constantly getting their son out of some ~; in a real financial ~ now that she's lost her job.


pickle: implies a particularly distressing or sorry plight: conflicting obligations that that put me in a real ~.


predicament困境: 表示处境困难，并且没有好的容易的出路，dilemma左右为难: 指使人面临两难选择的困境，quandary困惑: 强调令人困惑的困境，plight困境: 表示不幸和给人磨难的，fix,jam困境: 意思和plight相同的口语词，多表示个人有过错缺点，pickle困境: 指令人十分痛苦哀伤的困境


记忆方法: 1）首字母重新排列成PDQPFJP求解放的人民<==困境     "困"是会意字，从囗wéi: 象房的四壁，里边是生长的树木。本义"废弃的房屋"，说文: "困，故庐也"，有两个引申义"1贫穷"、"2困难"，进而用作动词表示"困扰困顿想睡觉"，如困扰困窘困乏围困，如欧阳修"夫祸患常积于忽微，而智勇多困于所溺，岂独伶人也哉"，意思是说人们常常因为不注意细节而招来祸患，聪明勇敢的人大多被他所溺爱的人或事物逼到困境(即困扰)    "境"是形声字，从土竟声，本义是"边境边界"，引申为1、地方区域，如渐入佳境如入无人之境，2、情况状况状态，如境况境地处境困境     另外，"窘:表示1不知所措或2困难


         2）困境的意思是难以逃脱的处境mean a situation from which escape is difficult.