sink or swim

基本解釋

Two weeks ago I came to the end of eight straight weeks of staring at the ceilings of hospital rooms, and now I’m alone in a new city- sink or swim!
兩周前我終于結束了整整8周在醫(yī)院小隔間的生活，而現(xiàn)在我已經(jīng)在一個新地方獨立生活---或沉淪或遨游！
With technology undermining the old monopolies that postal services used to enjoy, the obvious answer is to privatise them and let them sink or swim.
隨著科技正逐漸動搖郵電業(yè)曾經(jīng)享受的壟斷地位，明顯的答案就是將郵電私有化，然后任其沉浮。
If you’ve suddenly been dumped, you’ll have had a picture in your mind of how your life was going to be and, when it all comes crashing down, you either sink or swim.
如果你突然被人拋棄，你一定會在腦海里想象未來的生活將會變成什么樣子，然而，當這一切如洪水般從天而降，您所能做的，就是要么沉入水底葬身魚腹，要么奮力拼搏去擊水中流。

They're in this classroom -- they're sort of just thrown in to sink or swim.
WHITEHOUSE: Online Town Hall
Perhaps, more pragmatically, he calculated that Wahhabism and the Saud family would sink or swim together.
ECONOMIST: Sheikh Bin Baz
There is little public support for scrapping more social programmes—however dysfunctional—and leaving the poor to sink or swim.
ECONOMIST: Lexington

If you are left to sink or swim, you are given no help so that you succeed or fail completely by your own efforts.