a rat race

基本解释

Most people are sort of like all in a rat-race and scrabbling up together.
很多人都像是在一个你死我活的竞争中，拥挤在一起。
If we stay in the rat-race 24 hours, seven days a week, we are bound to pollute our inner space as well as the outer space.
如果我们保持每周七天二十四小时你死我活的竞争状态，我们必然会污染我们的内心世界，也会污染外部空间。
In other words, the rodents were now cognitively predisposed to keep doing the same things over and over, to run laps in the same dead-ended rat race rather than seek a pipeline to greener sewers.
换句话说，啮齿类今朝被以为天赋喜欢一再的做同一件事，他们会在同一个作古胡同似的年夜鼠田径场上跑圈而不乐意探求一个通往更便利的下水道处的输油管道。

Like a rat-race commuter, you can get dressed, have breakfast, say goodbye to the goldfish, then march out the door ready to conquer the world.
FORBES: Why Your Home Office Should Be In The Backyard
When he tested the powder on mice they no longer ran up a steep incline to get a reward, nor tumbled down it in a stupor, but ran around, happy and alert, at the bottom, as if the rat-race did not exist.
ECONOMIST: Leo Sternbach