Ⅰ . Introduction

Translation, especially for English majors, is an important skill in learning language. In the practice of translation we English majors may meet many problems. Among which, English long sentences’ translation is still our big difficulty. As it exists many differences between English and Chinese, we should pay more attention to them when we are translating.

In this article, I will introduce several translating techniques. To some extent, it will help you translate English long or involved sentences and even improve your translation ability if you acquire them.

Ⅱ . Different Features between Chinese long sentences and English long sentences

Long sentence refers to a sentence with many words, complex structure and several stratifications of meaning( 吕瑞昌 , 1983:146 ） .It exists many different features between Chinese long-sentence and English long sentence. In Chinese, there are two kinds of long sentence from its inner structure: one has several component parts and the contents of this kind of sentence are plentiful and delicate; the other is a sentence of two or more clauses, which can show logical relations among things clearly. For example, 虽然我的篱笆直径达二十五码 , 然而这些树却很快地把它完全遮起来 , 使它成为一个绿叶成荫的地方 , 在旱季里住在底下 , 非常合适 .( 方原 , 1959: 93)

However, in English long sentence is usually extended sentence which bases on basic structure, namely, subject + predicate. We can extend sentences by adding modifier, compound sentence, using phrase and clause as component. Besides, English focuses on shape similarities. Subject and predicate compound part are the outline of whole sentence while other parts are usually connected to subject-predicate part by using preposition, conjunction, and pronoun and so on. For example," They are striving for the ideal which is close to the heart of every Chinese and for which, in the past, many Chinese have laid down their lives."( 张培基 , 1980 ： 131)

Ⅲ . Main methods and skills on translation and practical implication

Actually, there are four ways on translating English long sentences, namely, the method of English long sentence''s translation according to the order of original sentence; the method of English long sentence''s translation partly or completely disobeying the order of original sentence; the method of English Long sentence''s translation of dividing the sentence into many parts; the method of English long sentence''s translation of using several translation methods.