To fight to be ahead and fear to fall behind
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Positive
到了1814年，人们都挤在面包房外面，争先恐后地想一睹在店里工作的年轻厨师最新推出的甜食 | Dào le 1814 nián, rénmen dōu jǐ zài miànbāo fáng wàimiàn, zhēngxiānkǒnghòu de xiǎng yī dǔ zài diàn lǐ gōngzuò de niánqīng chúshī zuìxīn tuīchū de tiánshí
By 1814, people would crowd outside of the bakery and fight to get a glimpse of the young baker's newly made sweets
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当价格飙升时矿业公司争先恐后增产 | Dāng jiàgé biāoshēng shí kuàngyè gōngsī zhēngxiānkǒnghòu zēngchǎn
When prices were soaring, the mining companies rushed to increase production
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This is an HSK chengyu
《韩非子》(Hán Fēi Zǐ), a book of philosophy authored by 韩非 (Hán Fēi) during the Warring States Period (475 - 220 BC)
In the later years of the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC), there was an expert cart driver named 王子期 (Wáng Zǐ Qī). At some point, the founder of the state of 赵国 (Zhào Guó), 赵襄子 (Zhào Xiāng Zǐ), started taking lessons from 王子期. Not long after, 赵襄子, thinking that he'd learned all that there was to learn, challenged his teacher to a race. 王子期 agreed, and a date was settled.
When the race finally happened, 赵襄子 had to change his horse three times. Each time, he fell behind his teacher. After the race ended, he accused 王子期 of not teaching all of the techniques that he knew.
王子期 replied, "I taught you all of the techniques that I know, it's just that your application of those techniques is poor. When driving, your cart and your horse have to be in perfect harmony before you are able to go far or fast. Regardless of whether you were winning or losing, you kept focusing on me because you were afraid of coming in last. How could you focus on your horse and cart like that?"