Concentrate on context (actual meaning, sequence of events....), rather than on theoretical analysis: taking sentences apart and then trying to piece them together again is hard work and ineffective to boot. Greek texts are NOT jigsaw puzzles.

You'll really notice the difference later on, in long sentences: by the time you've finished analyzing the first sentence of a speech, the speaker has concluded and the audience gone home.

The Greeks, and the Romans, loved rhethoric, loved using language in sometimes - to our modern minds - very convoluted and abstruse ways. Their audiences stood and listened, taking it all in, from first word to last. They didn't say: Hey, wait a moment, Mr. Demosthenes (or Mr. Cicero), verb first, please. So why do we?

Let's face it, they were no more intelligent than we are. So: what they could do, we certainly can do too! With a little practice, of course.