托福阅读材料之墨西哥借玛雅末日预言促进当地旅游业

Inscriptions found on two Mayan tablets have been interpreted by some as heralding a cataclysmic event on Dec 21, 2012.

cataclysmic event：灾难事件

The country's tourism agency, which stressed it does not itself believe the world will end, hopes to attract 52 million visitors to southeastern areas that were the heart of Mayan territory over the course of next year. The whole of the country usually attracts 22 million visitors annually.

More than 500 Mayan-themed events have been planned including ceremonies with Mayan priests performing rituals, burning incense and chanting.

In the jungle near Cancun messages and photographs will be placed in a "time capsule" and buried.

time capsule：时间囊

The town of Chiapas, on the Guatemalan border, is installing an 8ft digital clock in its main park which will count down to the much anticipated date.

Experts including archaeologists at Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology say Mayan thinking has been misinterpreted and the world will not end. They say the Maya saw time as a series of cycles and 2012 merely marks the end of one of those cycles.

But suggestions of an apocalypse have been fuelled by the Hollywood blockbuster film "2012," which in turn has helped Mexico become more intriguing for tourists.

intriguing：迷人的

Yeanet Zaldo, a tourism spokeswoman for the state of Quintana Roo, which includes Cancun, said: "People who still live in Mayan villages will host rites and burn incense for us to go back in time and try to understand the Mayan wisdom."

The Mayan calendar begins in 3,114BC and splits time into 394-year periods known as Baktuns. The 13th Baktun ends around Dec 21, 2012.

split …into：将…分成

According to a 1,300-year-old stone tablet Bolon Yokte, a Mayan god associated with both war and creation, will "descend from the sky" at that time.

Archaeologists revealed recently that they had found a second possible reference to the date on a brick fragment.

But Miss Zaldo said she was confident tourism would continue into 2013. She said: "The world will not end. It is an era."

【新闻快讯】玛雅文化的“末日预言”让世界上很多人都认为，随着12月21日的来临，世界将陷入无限黑暗。不过对于墨西哥的玛雅文化遗址而言，这倒是促进了当地旅游业的大发展。英国广播公司12月20日报道说，对于玛雅帝国“皇冠之珠”的奇琴伊察城邦而言，这里是古代玛雅文明最杰出代表之一。奇琴伊察城邦位于墨西哥东南部尤卡坦半岛，是被联合国科教文组织认定的世界文化遗址，每年都有超过100万的游客前来参观，而今年游客数目更是会达到记录水平，很多人都想到此一睹玛雅文化所遗留的废墟。

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