He is survived by his wife and his two sons.

1.survive可作及物动词，当它后面的宾语是人或动物时，可解为live or exist longer than(据《牛津词典》），意为“比......活得久”，如：
Mary survived Tom .(Mary比Tom活得久，Mary的存活年限超越了Tom的存活年限，意即Tom死时Mary还活在世上。）
把这句话改为被动句，就是：
Tom was survived by Mary . （Tom的存活年限被Mary的超越了。）
由此可知，“be survived by...”意为“被......超越了存活年限”。所以， “He is survived by his wife and his two sons.”的意思就是：“他的存活年限被他的妻子和两个儿子的超越了。”换句话说，就是“他抛下妻子和两个儿子而撒手人寰了。”
2.survive作及物动词还可理解为“经历......后还活着/还幸存”（当其后宾语是某事情时），如
Those houses survived the earthquake.（那些房子地震之后还残存下来。）
3.survive还可作不及物动词，即后面不跟宾语，意为“活下来，幸存”，如：
Only a few soldiers survived after the battle.(经过这场战斗，只有几个士兵幸免于死。）