英语的立体结构使句子层层包孕套叠，不仅长而且复杂。英译汉常用的技能就是变多层为单层，也就是变英语主从结构为汉语的并列结构。请见几例：

① His remarks hit home when he said that we did not work hard enough.

他说的很对，我们的工作不够努力。

② It is very much like communication with an accurate robot who has a very small vocabulary and who take every thing literally.

这很像和一丝不苟的机器人讲话，机器人只懂很少的词汇，而且你怎么说，它就怎么做。 

③ Each of the broadcasting companies is linked to approximately 200 affiliated stations to which it provides major entertainment programs which they could not produce it if they were obliged to depend on local resources.

每个广播公司都与大约200个附属广播站有联系， 由公司向这些广播站提供主要娱乐性节目，这些节目要靠各站就地取材是难以编排出来的。

④The United States has long been known as a melting pot because many of its people are descended from settlers who came from all over the world to make their homes in the new land，which was sparsely populated by native Indian tribes.

Attracted by reports of great economic opportunities and stories of self-made people from rags to riches, immigrants from many countries flocked to the United States, where they expected to make their fortune.

美国一向以“民族的熔炉”而著称，很多人都是移民的后裔，这些移民从世界各地来到这片新的土地 上建立家园，当时这里只零散地居住着土著印第安人。

听说在美国经济发展机会很多，有许多人白手起 家，成了富人，所以来自世界各地的移民纷纷拥到美国，指望在那里发财致富。

从以上例子中我们看到，英语能十分方便地体现各种复杂的层次关系，而汉语则更习惯于用平面性的单层结构来表迖意义。