我们知道，汉语在表达较复杂的概念时，大多是采用多个短句，逐点交待，层层铺开，以使主次分明，先后有序。因此，英语长句的翻译处理就必然要诉诸拆句译法。具体说来，就是要在对全句的语法关系、逻辑层次和时间先后分析清楚之后，按照汉语的表达特点，把长句中的并列成分、短语、从句以及附加成分一一拆译出来，单独成句，作为对句子主要成分的说明。而要作到这一点，就需要对原文的句子结构和表迖层次进行适当的调整乃至全盘打乱重新加以排列组合。

有些英语长句虽然结构冗长，但其表意顺序和叙述层次与汉语相近。对这种句子，基本上可以按照原来的先后顺序拆译成若干小句、递次译出。请看以下各例。

1. In 1911，a scientist in Poland found that the reason why beriberi was occurxing mostly in the Orient was that the peoples in these countries ate mainly white or polished rice.

一九一一年，一位波兰科学家发现，脚气病所以多发生在东方，是因该地区各国的人民主要以白米或精制大米为食。

2. Briefly, the impact sensitivity of the propellants was studied by impacting a flat end of the samples using flat-ended cylindrical brass projectiles and observing the impact reaction by an open-shutter camera, a photocell, post inspection, and weighing of the propellant fragments.

简单地说，发射药的撞击灵敏度是这样进行测试的：首先用扁平端的黄铜弹丸撞击样弹的扁平端，然后通过开式快门摄影机、光电元件和哨位来观测撞击反应情况，最后再称取发射药的碎渣重量。

3. The reason why air makes fire burn more intensely was learned only about two hundred years ago, when several scientists finally proved that oxygen, one of the gases air contains, can combine with certain other elements like carbon to release much heat.

空气为什么能使火燃烧得更旺?直到大约二百年前才弄清其原因。当时某些科学家终于证明，空气中有一种气体是氧，它能够与其它一些元素（如碳）化合，从而释放出大量的热。