有些英语长句，往往先在句首部分交待事物的主要情节，而后再补述有关的细节，这与中国人的语言思维逻辑相反。对叙述层次与汉语相反的这类长句，采用逆序拆译办法，往往颇为可取。试看以下各例。

1. The increasing speed of scientific development will be obvious if one considers that television，space craft, and nuclear-powered ships, which are taken for granted now , would have seemed fantastic to people whose lives ended as recently as 1920.

电视机、宇宙飞船和核动力舰艇对今天的人们来说已不是什么新鲜事物，但对于近在本世纪二十年代末去世的人来说，还似乎是不可思议的东西，考虑到这一点，科学发展的速度之快也就显而易见了。

2. However, the proponents of the above would perhaps be surprised to learn that the German Marine have concluded that the best weapon for engaging heavily defensed naval targets are good old iron bombs.

然而，西德海军陆战队却得出结论说，用以攻击防卫严密的水面舰艇的最佳武器是优良的老式铁制炸弹。这对上述观点的支持者来说，可能会感到吃惊。

3. Rocket research has confirmed a strange fact which had already been suspected：there is a "high-temperature belt" in the atmosphere, with its center roughly thirty miles above the ground.

大气中存在一个“高温带”，其中心距地面约30英里，对此人们曾经表示怀疑。经火箭探测后，这一不可思议的事实已得到证实。

4. Some progress was made today during talks between top American and Chinese officials on one of the major blocks to expanded Sino-U.S. economic ties , the problem of Chinese assets frozen in the United States and American claims against China, a senior U. S. government official said.

美国政府的一位高级官员说，今天，美中最高级官员就扩大中美经济往来的主要障碍之一，即中国在美被冻结的财产和美国对中国的财产要求问题进行了会谈，并已取得了某些进展。