例：The talk about raising taxes was a red flag to many voters.
译文：关于增税的谈论激怒了许多选民。
分析：原文表层信息——关于增税的谈论对选民来说是一面红旗（红旗对中文读者来说象征着革命）。
原文深层信息——a red flag是令人生气的事物，源于西班牙的斗牛民俗。斗牛场上，人们用红布来激怒牛。
（3）直译与意译相结合
例：The purpose of a test is to show what you have learned about a subject. The world won't end if you don't pass a test. So don't worry excessively about a single test.
例1：Social science is that branch of intellectual enquiry which seeks to study humans and their endeavors in the same reasoned， orderly， systematic， and dispassioned manner that natural scientists use for the study of natural phenomena.(2003考研翻译真题)
拆分句子：
（1）句子的主干是：Social science is that branch of intellectual enquiry;
（2）定语从句：which后面是一个定语从句，其先行词是social science;
（3）方式状语：in the same reasoned， orderly， systematic， and dispassioned manner是方式状语。其中的reasoned， orderly， systematic， and dispassioned是并列定语，修饰manner;
（4）定语从句：that natural scientists use for the study of natural phenomena是定语从句，其先行词是manner;
（5）拆分后句子的总结构是：
Social science is that branch of intellectual enquiry(主干) which seeks to study humans and their endeavors(定语从句) in the same reasoned， orderly， systematic， and dispassioned manner(方式状语) that natural scientists use for the study of natural phenomena.(定语从句)
Interest in historical methods had arisen less through external challenge to the validity of history as an intellectual discipline and more from internal quarrels among historians themselves.
英文原句是个典型的长句，由27个词组成，中间没有使用任何标点符号，完全靠语法结构使整个句子的意思化零为整： less through…and more from构成一个复杂的状语，修饰动词arisen。在中文翻译中，“产生兴趣”这一重要内容通过一个独立的句子表达，两个不同的原因则分别由不同的句子表达，整个句子被化整为零“…产生兴趣…，这与其说是因为…，还不如说是因为…”