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If you want to worry, most scientists say, you should think about global climate change, rogue asteroids or nuclear war. But if speculation about ancient prophecies gets you going, here are some things Dr. Morrison and the others think you should know.
大多数科学家说，如果你要担心，就去担心全球气候变化，飘忽不定的小行星或者核战争。但如果关于古代预言的猜测使你担忧，莫里森博士和其他一些学者认为你应该了解以下几点：
To begin with, astronomers agree, there is nothing special about the Sun and galactic center aligning in the sky. It happens every December with no physical consequences beyond the overconsumption of eggnog. And anyway, the Sun and the galactic center will not exactly coincide even in 2012.
首先，天文学家一致认为，太阳和银河系中心点在天空中连成一线没什么特别，这种事情每年的12月份都会发生，除了（因为圣诞节的到来使得）蛋奶酒的需求大增之外没什么自然后果。而且太阳和银河系中心点即使在2012年也不会精确地连成一线。
If there were another planet out there heading our way, everybody could see it by now. As for those fierce solar storms, the next sunspot maximum will not happen until 2013, and will be on the mild side, astronomers now say.
其次，即便真的有另外一颗行星正向我们撞来，那么我们每个人现在都应该能看到了。至于那些猛烈的太阳风暴，天文学家们接着说，在2013年之前不会发生下一个太阳黑子的大爆发期，而且强度也会相对较弱。
Geological apocalypse is a better bet. There have been big earthquakes in California before and probably will be again. These quakes could destroy Los Angeles, as shown in the movie, and Yellowstone could erupt again with cataclysmic force sooner or later. We and our works are indeed fragile and temporary riders on the Earth. But in this case, "sooner or later" means hundreds of millions of years, and there would be plenty of warning.
实际上，地质学上的灾变预言或许更令人信服。加利福尼亚此前曾发生过大地震，今后也可能还会有。这些地震可能像电影《2012》中演的那样摧毁洛杉矶。黄石国家公园里的火山可能迟早会以灾难性的自然威力再次喷发。我们和我们拥有的一切实际上非常脆弱，都只是地球的暂时过客。但假使这样的话，“迟早”也意味着数亿年的时间，而其间将会有大量的前兆。
