Question

He made a few desperate stokes and you could tell he was exhausted 这句自怎么翻译？

Answer 1

直接译可能意思不是很明确，我在网上搜索了一下原文。
He made a few desperate strokes and you could tell he was worn out.
这里stroke应该理解为（游泳的）划水动作
tell的意思是 分辨得出，看得出
wear out意思是 （使）精疲力竭。这里用的是过去分词形式，转化为了形容词，作表语。

整个句子是and连接的并列分句，大致意思如下：。
他做了几个绝望的划水动作，你可以看得出他是精疲力竭的。
高中阅读理解的题目，全文如下：
While watching the Olympics the other night, I came across an unbelievable sight. It was not a gold medal, or a world record broken, but a show of courage.
The event was swimming and started with only three men on the blocks. For one reason or another, two of them false started, so they were disqualified. That left only one to compete. It would have been difficult enough, not having anyone to race against, even though the time on the clock is important.
I watched the man dive off the block and knew right away that something was wrong. I'm not an expert swimmer, but I can tell a good dive from a poor one, and this was not exactly medal quality. When he resurfaced, it was evident that the man was not out for gold - his arms were waving in an attempt at freestyle. The crowd started to laugh. Clearly this man was not a medal competitor.
I listened to the crowd begin to laugh at this poor man who was clearly having a hard time. Finally he made his turn to start back. It was pitiful. He made a few desperate strokes and you could tell he was worn out.
But in those few awful strokes, the crowd had changed.
No longer were they laughing, but beginning to cheer. Some even began to stand and shout "Come on, you can do it!" and he did.
A clear minute past the average swimmer, this young man finally finished his race. The crowd went wild. You would have thought that he had won the gold, and he should have. Even though he recorded one of the slowest times in Olympic history, this man gave more heart than any of the other competitors.
Just a short year ago, he had never even swum, let alone race. His country had been invited to Sydney.
In a competition where athletes remove their silver medals feeling they have somehow been cheated out of gold, or when they act so proudly in front of their competitors, it is nice to watch an underdog.

Answer 2

我查了一下这个句子，取自一篇阅读
He made a few desperate strokes and you could tell he was exhausted.
他拼命地划了几下水。你可以看出他已经精疲力尽了。
strokes n. 划水动作
make a few strokes 划了几下水
desperate adj. 绝望的，拼命的，不顾一切的
make a few desperate strokes 拼命的划了几下水
tell v. 告诉，显示，标明
you could tell 你可以看出
exhausted adj. tired 精疲力尽的
he was exhausted 他是精疲力尽的

Answer 3

He made a few desperate stokes and you could tell he was exhausted.
翻译：
他绝望地拍打了几下， 看得出他快耗尽了。