The announcements by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, in the form of several Web site postings and a video posted on YouTube, were in response to worries that the world will end on Dec. 21, 2012, when a 5,125-year cycle known as the Long Count in the Mayan calendar supposedly comes to a close.
美國國家航空航天局在其官網上發了幾次消息,并在YouTube上發了視頻,就是為了回應人們對世界將在2012年12月21日終結的擔心。在以“長歷法”聞名的瑪雅人的歷法中,每5125年是一個輪回,據說在2012年12月21日這天是一個輪回的結束。
But this is only one version of apocalypse out there. In other variations, a planet named Nibiru crashes into us or the Earth's magnetic field flips.
然而,這只是世界毀滅的一個版本而已。其他的版本還有名為Nibiru的行星撞向我們或者地球磁場翻轉等災難。
There are hundreds of books devoted to 2012, and millions of Web sites, depending on what combination of "2012" and "doomsday" you type into Google.
有關2012年世界末日的書籍不下數百種,根據你在谷歌上鍵入的“2012”和“世界末日”的不同組合,能搜到數百萬個相關的網站。