The Little Ice Age was far from a deep freeze, however; rather an irregular seesaw of rapid climatic shifts, few lasting more than a quarter-century, driven by complex and still understood interactions between the atmosphere and the ocean.

　　【句子主干】

　　The Little Ice Age was far from a deep freeze, however; rather an irregular seesaw of rapid climate shifts…

　　【结构分析】

　　however引导转折成分

　　few lasting…现在分词短语，driven by …过去分词短语，修饰climatic shifts

　　【重点词汇】

　　rather (on the contrary)相反

　　seesaw (fluctuating situation) 交替局面

　　far from 完全不;远远不

　　【句子翻译】

　　小冰期远不是一个深度冰冻期，而是一系列不规则交替剧变的气候，持续期短于25年，且由复杂难解的大气海洋间的相互作用引起。

　　翻译练习

　　中翻英：

　　1. 墙不是白的，而是灰不溜秋的。

　　2. 计算机远非破坏就业，而是能创造就业。

　　英翻中：

　　Second, we make a very conservative assumption that we are looking for a life form that is pretty well like us, since if it differs radically from us we may well not recognise it as a life form, quite apart from whether we are able to communicate with it.

　　翻译答案

　　1、The walls were not white, rather a sort of dirty grey.

　　2、Computer, far from destroying jobs, can create employment.