【正文】 d significant to study the characteristics of the English and Chinese long sentences and the transformation between them，which bring up the discussion on contrasting the different characteristics between English and Chinese sentences. The characteristic of English long sentence structureAn English long sentence can be defined as the sentence that contains a great numbers of words，phrases，or clauses and many modifiers and that can express plex ideas.（Zhu Fangzhu 2002：189）According to structure，English long sentences can be classified into four kinds：simple long sentence，pound long sentence，plex long sentences and plexpound long sentences. （Zhu Fangzhu 2002：192）Simple long sentences have only one subjectpredicate structure in which one or more constituents are long and plex. Compound long sentence：Compound long sentence have two or more subjectpredicate structures，with coordinated relationship between each other. Complex long sentence：Complex long sentences are posed of several subjectpredicate structures among which some is primary and others are subordinated. Compoundplex long sentences are pound sentences on the whole，but there is one or more subordinated clauses in the coordinated clauses. （Zhu Fangzhu 2002：193）From the above definitions，it can be seen that English long sentence develops from the basic structure of subjectpredicate. There are three ways to expand them into long and plex ones：to add the modifiers or coordinate constituents，to make phrases to be constituents（such as prepositional phrases，participate phrases，definite phrases），and to bine two or mere simple sentences into pound or plex sentences. The characteristic of Chinese long sentence structureChinese long sentences refer to those that have a lot of words and plex structures with multiplex semantic meanings. （Zhu Fangzhu 2002：231）Chinese long sentences can be classified into three kinds：simple long sentences，plex long sentences and multipleplex sentences. （Zhu Fangzhu 2002：233）Simple long sentences are developed from the short simple ones. Their constituents are not a word or a simple phrase，but plex phrases or clauses. One of the reasons for their length is that they have some modifiers such as adjectives or adverbs. Another reason is that one or more constituents are long and plex. Complex long sentences are posed of three or more clauses and have more than two levels in structure. When a sentence expresses polymorphic meaning，it always develops phrases or clauses in a parallel or paratactic direction into a long sentence， because there is no the same strict sentence boundary in Chinese as in English. It is difficult to punctuate Chinese sentences. In fact，immediate punctuation was one of the key studies in the old days before printed punctuations were used. Comparison of sentence structures in English and Chinese Although English and Chinese adopt the basic structure：subjectpredicateobject, it is acknowledged that they bear specific characteristics. So a parison should be made to illustrate the specific characteristics between English and Chinese languages. English has articles, but Chinese does not. The possessive pronouns, conjunctions and passive voice are much more often used in English than in Chinese. Besides, English sentences, generally speaking, are longer than Chinese sentences. It is by no means easy to have a correct understanding of English long sentence， not to mention translate it into Chinese. That’s the difference between the two languages in length. The factors that result in a long English sentence are: 1. multiple modifiers。 首先介紹了英語長句的翻譯現(xiàn)狀。目前，幾乎所有的英文翻譯沒有不涉及到長句的翻譯的，英語長句的翻譯歷來是英漢翻譯中的難點之一，以往對這方面的研究大都著眼于總結(jié)翻譯長句的經(jīng)驗和技巧，這些方法對翻譯長句無疑提供了有價值的指導作用。因此，譯好句子可以為語篇翻譯打下良好的基礎，也是譯者應具備的基本技能。本論文以大量英漢長句及其譯句為實例，著重考察英語長句的翻譯問題。同時指出此文只是對長句翻譯方面的一些初步探討，今后還有更多英語長句翻譯問題值得我們進一步研究和探討。s correct prehension of the original and, in his/her capability for adequate representation of the thought of the author in the target language. The English long sentences translation consists of four steps.Step1. Finding out the trunk of the whole sentenceWhen the English long sentences are translated into Chinese, the first key point lies in analyzing correctly their multiplebranching constructions, which is, analyzing the grammar relation between the layers of structure. An important step in prehending the multiplebranching constructions lies in discovering the subjectpredicate nucleus and understanding the modifying relations between the modified and the modifiers.English long sentences are often posed of several subordinate clauses so the construction of the whole sentence bees plicated to prehend. Translators should analyze the grammatical feature of plicated sentences，have a clear understanding of the subjectpredicate nucleus，the modifying relations between attributives or adverbials in one hand and the words they modify on the other，which would help them to translate English long sentences. A good understanding of analyzing correctly the multiplebranching constructions is conductive to the prehension of the long sentence and the practice of translation. the main idea of the sentencesThe translator should read the whole piece of the context carefully，try to grasp the ideological content the author wants to express and make clear not only the literal meaning but also the implications between the lines. As mentioned above，the first step is to find out the trunk of each sentence，and the next step is to infer the core of the sentence，the logical sequence and try to grasp the main idea of the sentence. In order to get the central idea appropriately, translators should first read and examine the original sentence analytically, and then divide the sentence into semantic units through analyzing the sentence structure. They have to distinguish the primary message from the secondary messages and find out the logical relationships between the semantic units. Therefore, they can single out the central idea, or