欧美人文风情第106篇:2012和世界末日

 History has a long and rich tradition of apocalyptic¹ predictions—all of which were wrong 长久以来，历史上流传着各式各样启示录预言的传说－－没有一个成真

—yet some people still think that this time around in 2012 is the real deal. －－但还是有人相信，这次大概2012年就是世界末日。

Why 2012? Because of ancient Mayan calendars. 为什么是2012年呢？这就要追溯至古代的马雅历法。

Obviously, Mayan calendars not only recorded the days and years, 很显然的，马雅历法不只是记载了日日年年，

but also longer cycles of about five Millennia², 同时也记录了以约五千年为单位，较长的周期，

so they could easily make calendars that went thousands of years into the future. 所以他们可以很轻易的估算出未来几千年的历法。

But, of course, thousands of years in the future from thousands of years ago brings us to the current times when the Mayan calendars stop in 2012. 但是，想当然尔，几千年前的数千年以后，就把我们带到了现代，而马雅历法的预测就停在2012年。

Modern new-agey people decided³ that the wise Mayans stopped making calendars because they knew when the world will end. 现代推崇“新时代运动”的人们，是如此解读的：睿智的马雅人知道何时是世界末日，才停止估算历法。

And because the new-agers are happy (though scientifically illiterate⁴ people), 而因为这些“新时代运动派”很高兴(虽然他们没什么科学概念)，

their vision of 2012 was a great spiritual awakening⁵ or world reboot 他们的2012末日说，是一个伟大的精神觉醒、世界重生

or other hippy-consciousness-expanding nonsense that the Mayans, 或是其他嬉皮式的“意识超脱”之类的废话，

who spend time pulling strings⁶ of thorns through people's tongues probably didn't have in mind. 而马雅人忙着用荆棘穿过人们的舌头，大概从没想过以上解读方式。

To a normal person, the thought that "Calendar finished, therefore End of the World" is an odd conclusion to draw. 对正常人来说，“历法终止，因此世界末日来临”这种逻辑是个奇怪的结论。

After all, the amount of time in the Universe is infinite, and the amount of stone is limited. 毕竟，宇宙的时间是无限的，但石头的数量有限。

So, at some point, the Mayans had to stop carving⁷ calendars. 所以，有朝一日，马雅人必须停止刻历法。

But never mind. 但没关系。

What should have stayed a fringe belief 这原本应该只是一个极端偏激的信念，

turned into mass hysteria with the 2012 disaster movie that swept the Academy Awards and the numerous Emmy-nominated apocalypse documentaries on The History Channel. 随着灾难电影《2012》横扫奥斯卡，加上《历史频道》多部获艾美奖提名的天启纪录片渲染，转变成为大众恐慌。

What happened to you guys? 各位，你们到底在想什么啊？

Anyway, after this, NASA became so inundated⁸ with questions that they had to take time away from their busy robot building, 不论如何，此后，NASA被大量涌入的问题淹没，还得从他们忙碌的打造机器人、

frontier pushing, knowledge expanding, civilization inspiring schedule, to write a webpage explaining that 开疆扩土、扩充新知及刺激文明发展的行程表中，抽空架网页澄清：

"No, a human-sacrificing, stone-aged society, with neither wheels to pull carts nor glass to make telescopes, “不，一个以人为祭品的石器时代社会，既没有发明轮子拉货车，也没有玻璃可以做望远镜，

didn't know more about science at the dawn of history than real scientists do today." 在人类历史起步之初，不可能比现代真正科学家更了解科学。”

But the parade of crazy marched on anyway making wilder and wilder predictions for Earth, including: 但不论如何，这狂热的风潮持续延烧，对地球的预测也越来越不着边际，包括：

Geomagnetic Reversal (A process that unfolds on a geologic⁹ time scale, not a single day.) 地磁反转(一个在地质年表上才会呈现出的过程，不是一天就会发生的。)

A collision with mysterious Planet X (That no astronomers¹⁰ have found.) 和神秘的X星球相撞(根本没有天文学家发现这个星球)

A local star going supernova (Despite there have been no such candidates.) 本星系群的一颗恒星变成超新星(只是没有这样的候选人)

An Alien Invasion (Which is ludicrous on the face of it...or is it?) 外星人入侵(从外表看起来是挺滑稽的...是吗？)

And a galactic synchronization¹¹ beam, whatever the hell that is. 还有银河同步光束，管它是啥。

A sane¹² person at this point would wonder how Mayans were able to predict astro-physical anomalies thousands of years in advance and millions of miles away 现在，神智清楚的人可能会想，为什么马雅人有办法预测未来几千年的天文物理异象，而且还是发生在离他们数百万英里远的地方，

yet didn't foresee the Spanish coming across the Atlantic. 却没办法预见西班牙人会横越大西洋(前来侵略)呢？

And that's because the Mayans never predicted apocalypse. 那是因为马雅人从没预言过启示录。

The only people to claim that Mayans knew about the end of the world were distinctly not Mayans. 唯一那些声称马雅人知道世界末日的人，很明显的，都不是马雅人。

 

1 apocalyptic   

adj.预示灾祸的，启示的

参考例句：

• The air is chill and stagnant,the language apocalyptic.空气寒冷而污浊，语言则是《启示录》式的。
• Parts of the ocean there look just absolutely apocalyptic.海洋的很多区域看上去完全像是世界末日。

2 millennia   

n.一千年，千禧年

参考例句：

• For two millennia, exogamy was a major transgression for Jews. 两千年来，异族通婚一直是犹太人的一大禁忌。
• In the course of millennia, the dinosaurs died out. 在几千年的时间里，恐龙逐渐死绝了。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 illiterate   

adj.文盲的；无知的；n.文盲

参考例句：

• There are still many illiterate people in our country.在我国还有许多文盲。
• I was an illiterate in the old society,but now I can read.我这个旧社会的文盲，今天也认字了。

5 awakening   

n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的

参考例句：

• the awakening of interest in the environment 对环境产生的兴趣
• People are gradually awakening to their rights. 人们正逐渐意识到自己的权利。

6 strings   

n.弦

参考例句：

• He sat on the bed,idly plucking the strings of his guitar.他坐在床上，随意地拨着吉他的弦。
• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。

7 carving   

n.雕刻品，雕花

参考例句：

• All the furniture in the room had much carving.房间里所有的家具上都有许多雕刻。
• He acquired the craft of wood carving in his native town.他在老家学会了木雕手艺。

8 inundated   

v.淹没( inundate的过去式和过去分词 )；（洪水般地）涌来；充满；给予或交予（太多事物）使难以应付

参考例句：

• We have been inundated with offers of help. 主动援助多得使我们应接不暇。
• We have been inundated with every bit of information imaginable. 凡是想得到的各种各样的信息潮水般地向我们涌来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 geologic   

adj.地质的

参考例句：

• The Red Sea is a geologic continuation of the valley.红海就是一个峡谷在地质上的继续发展。
• Delineation of channels is the first step of geologic evaluation.勾划河道的轮廓是地质解译的第一步。

10 astronomers   

n.天文学者，天文学家( astronomer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Astronomers can accurately foretell the date,time,and length of future eclipses. 天文学家能精确地预告未来日食月食的日期、时刻和时长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Astronomers used to ask why only Saturn has rings. 天文学家们过去一直感到奇怪，为什么只有土星有光环。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 synchronization   

n.同一时刻；同步；使时间互相一致；同时性

参考例句：

• Communication record: the function supports synchronization record during the communication process. 通话录音：支持通话过程的同步录音。 来自互联网
• Synchronization is an important problem of digital audio watermarking. 同步性是数字音频水印的一个重要问题。 来自互联网

12 sane   

adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的

参考例句：

• He was sane at the time of the murder.在凶杀案发生时他的神志是清醒的。
• He is a very sane person.他是一个很有头脑的人。