万花筒 2012-12-10&12-13 天文学家再次辟谣末日论

 New assurances this week from NASA that theworld will not end on December 21st. This comes as one British newspaperreports that people on the globe are stockpiling supplies just in case. 

Join me now was Andrew Fraknoi, the astronomyprofessor of Foothill College in Los Atlos Hills, Los Altos Hills ***** California. Thank you for being here,I’m so glad to talk with you about this coz there’s so much attention on thisMayan calendar, which is supposedly signaling the end of the world on December21st. What’s the truth, Andrew, behind this calendar, does it really predictthe world’s end?

Well, I like to call this fiction science instead of science fiction. This iscompletely baseless. There’s not a shred¹ of evidence in favor of it, but itsurely is a lot of fun to be worrying about the end of the world. Hollywood knows that too.As far as the Mayan calendar’s concerned, Alex, this is a completemisunderstanding of how calendars work. Look, we face this kind of calendarcliff: every year when on December 31 you run out of pages on your calendar.You don’t think it’s the end of the world, you just think it’s time to go tothe stationary² store and buy a new calendar. And the Mayan calendar is the sameway. We are, according to some experts, coming to an end of one of their longcycle of days. But they themselves, the living descendants of the Mayan confirmthat that just means the next cycle will begin.

Alright, there is a prediction about this massive mysterious planet, I thinkit's called Niburu, 4 times the size of earth. It's gonna come close to earthand cause all kinds of disasters. Any truth there?

Absolutely not. And Niburu, as it’s called, is a completely made-up planet fromthe name of an ancient Sumerian God. Can you imagine, Alex, if there reallywere a planet that big coming close to us right now in December, is there anychance that you and all your listeners could not see it? It would be one of thebrightest things in the sky. For years, astronomers³ would have been yellingabout it. Astronomy hobbyists would have shown it in the paper, it would havebeen everywhere. The notion that a planet can hide, that it wouldn’t disturbthe orbits of the other worlds, it's so ridiculous that scientists can’timagine how anyone takes it seriously. But you are right that people get scaredbecause there is just so much conspiracy⁴ stuff out there.

Well, and you know what, there is Hollywoodtoo. What I’m gonna say when you think about that, I sort of think about, youknow, Will Smith and a bunch of US air force hotshots,***they are gonna blow the thing up. Butanyway, I also want to ask you though about solar flares⁵, because there aresmall periods, I mean slow periods of solar flares and sometimes they get a lotbigger, and there’s one that’s supposed to be looming⁶?

Well, no, actually there is a regular cycle of solar activity where the sungets a little bit more explosive on the surface. And there was all this rumorthat the end of the maximum of that cycle will come in 2012. But it's not true,it actually come in 2013. These active regions on the son are not generallypredicable until they happen. And even when they do happen, they don’t affectlife on earth, they occasionally damage a power grid⁷ in Canada or theyaffect our satellites in orbit. But the notion that civilization would end orthat MSNBC listeners themselves would be threatened, that’s utterly⁸ ridiculous.

Alright so my party plans on Saturday the 22nd are good to go?

Good to go and I'm afraid we will all have to pay taxes in 2013.

Oh, that’s a whole other conversation, alright, thank you very much. ProfessorAndrew Fraknoi, thank you.

1 shred   

v.撕成碎片，变成碎片；n.碎布条，细片，些少

参考例句：

• There is not a shred of truth in what he says.他说的全是骗人的鬼话。
• The food processor can shred all kinds of vegetables.这架食品加工机可将各种蔬菜切丝切条。

2 stationary   

adj.固定的，静止不动的

参考例句：

• A stationary object is easy to be aimed at.一个静止不动的物体是容易瞄准的。
• Wait until the bus is stationary before you get off.你要等公共汽车停稳了再下车。

3 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》

4 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

5 flares   

n.喇叭裤v.（使）闪耀( flare的第三人称单数 )；（使）（船舷）外倾；（使）鼻孔张大；（使）（衣裙、酒杯等）呈喇叭形展开

参考例句：

• The side of a ship flares from the keel to the deck. 船舷从龙骨向甲板外倾。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He's got a fiery temper and flares up at the slightest provocation. 他是火爆性子，一点就着。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 looming   

n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近

参考例句：

• The foothills were looming ahead through the haze. 丘陵地带透过薄雾朦胧地出现在眼前。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Then they looked up. Looming above them was Mount Proteome. 接着他们往上看，在其上隐约看到的是蛋白质组山。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 回顾与展望

7 grid   

n.高压输电线路网；地图坐标方格；格栅

参考例句：

• In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
• Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。

8 utterly   

adv.完全地，绝对地

参考例句：

• Utterly devoted to the people,he gave his life in saving his patients.他忠于人民，把毕生精力用于挽救患者的生命。
• I was utterly ravished by the way she smiled.她的微笑使我完全陶醉了。