169. 他白手起家,把一家小工廠辦成了跨國(guó)集團(tuán)。
[誤] He started from white hand, developing a small factory into an international business group.
[正] He started from scratch, developing a small factory into an international business group.
注: “白手”是“從零開(kāi)始”的意思,而不是“白色的手”。所以,有時(shí)候直譯是會(huì)貽笑大方的。scratch 作名詞時(shí)曾有“起跑線”之意,所以 start from scratch 才是“白手起家”的正確翻譯。