原文：The doctor held out much hope of his total recovery

誤譯：醫生對他的康復沒抱多少希望。

辯誤：譯文的錯誤在于對Hold out的理解上。Hold out有很多意思，其基本意思是“伸出”，如：She held out both hger hands to show her welcome.(她伸出雙手表示歡迎).此外還有引申意"提出",如:The new managers held out a new promise to raise the workers wages.(新來的經理提出增加工人工資的承諾).再進一步,這個短語還有"表現出","顯得"的意思.與之類似的就是原句中的用法,常常指"抱有","懷有".除了以上幾個,Hold out還有其他的意思:

讓我們通過幾個練習來學習下：

1 Neither party of the talks held out much hope for a final peaceful settlement.

2 He was suspected of holding out information important to the case.

3 The strikers are still holding out for higher wages.