2019-08-03 ostensible

英英释义：seeming or stated to be real or true, when this is perhaps not the case 

当我们想表示“xx seems to be”和“名义上是…“时，很多时候都可以用 ostensible 表示，它后面常接 goal/purpose/reason/cause 等名词。

sentence

1. His ostensible purpose was charity, but his real goal was popularity. 

醉翁之意不在酒

2. The ostensible reason for his absence was illness, but in fact he was just rather shy. 

3. The ostensible purpose of such rules is to prevent electoral fraud. 

4. The ostensible cause of popular discontent is a decline in law and order. 

5. Michael Bowling says that although the ostensible goal was to build a winning poker program, the real aim was to “study how to build computers to make decisions in difficult circumstances, especially where there is missing information”. 

practice

他辞职的表面理由是身体不好。

The ostensible reason for his resignation is illness.

参考翻译：The ostensible reason for his resignation was ill health.