Vicki: Now we've all survived the doomsday prophesied by the Mayans!
薇琪：现在我们大家都活过玛雅人预言的世界末日了！
Aaron: I don't know why people still believe in such nonsense. The Mayans may have developed a calendar. Prophecy is apparently something they were not so good at.
亚伦：我不懂为什么现在还有人相信这种毫无根据的言论。玛雅人可能发展了一种历法，但是显然他们并不擅长预言。
Vicki: Probably not, but they developed astronomy, hieroglyphic writing and built pyramids, and how they did it without metal tools is still a mystery.
薇琪：也许吧，但是他们发展出了天文学，象形文字，还建造了金字塔，而他们在没有金属工具的条件下是如何做到这一点的仍然是个谜。
Aaron: Are these pyramids used for tombs as in the ancient Egypt?
亚伦：这些金字塔也和古埃及金字塔一样是用来作墓穴的吗？
Vicki: No, most of these pyramids were designed to serve an astronomical function with surprising accuracy, often as observatory.
薇琪：不是，这些金字塔中的大多数都是用于某种天文观测的，比如作为观测台，其精确程度令人惊讶。
Aaron: That's very curious.
亚伦：好神奇。
Vicki: The Mayans believed the cosmos had a profound influence on human lives. That's why they went to such length to observe the sun and the stars, and in effect, they were able to develop a calendar that has only an error margin of 19 minutes a year.
薇琪：玛雅人认为，宇宙对于人类生活有着深刻的影响，因此他们才大费周章去观测太阳和星星，以至于他们发展的历法每年误差只有19分钟。
Aaron: Now I understand why people would care to listen to their prophecy.
亚伦：现在我知道为什么人们会关心他们的预言了。