家庭是社会的基本单位，其结构随着社会的发展而变化。在中国几千年的封建社会(feudal society)里，绝大部分家庭是几世同堂，家里的大事由男人做主。近百年来，中国的家庭观念发生了很大的变化，中国家庭的结构也随之改变了许多。人口众多的大家庭开始分成较小的家庭和主干家庭(stem family)，也出现了众多的由一对夫妇和未婚子女组成的核心家庭(nuclear family)。
1.第1句由两个分句组成，前—个分句的主语是“家庭”(family)，后一个分句的主语是“结构”(structure)如果把原句直译成并列的结构，其译文会显得松散，将其“分译”成两个句子效果会更好。
2.在第2句中，“几千年的”可译为一个定语从句，增泽一个动词last(持续)可使句子意思更为明确、生动。“家里的大事由男人做主”可处理成状语，用独立主格结构with the male members making all the important decisions来表达。翻译“几世同堂”、“由男人做主”时，不要受原文形式的束缚，关键是将其意思译出来。“几世同堂”的意思是“包含有几代人”，“包含”可译为consist of或be made up of;“大事由男人做主” 主要表示“做所有重大的决定”,可译为making all the important decisions。
3.在第3句中，“中国的家庭观念发生了很大的变化”可套用句型greatchanges have happened/taken placein...。“……也随之改变”可用accordingly来表达。
4.最后一句中的后一分句为无主语句，宜把非主语成分“众多的……核心家庭”转换为主语，套用句型thereappear...。定语“由一对夫妇和未婚子女组成的”较长，可将其处理成后置定语，用分词短语composed of acouple...来表达。
参考译文：
Family is the basic unit of the society. Its structure changes along with the development of the society. In China's feudal society which lasted several thousand years, most families consisted of several generations, with the male members making all the important decisions. During the last hundred years, great changes have taken place in Chinese family concept, and accordingly in the Chinese family structure. Large families began to divide into smaller families and stem families. There also appear many nuclear families composed of a couple and their unmarried children.
