今天的这段对话，在讨论玛雅人，
玛雅人为什么被认为是古代文明中最聪明的人？为什么玛雅文明会衰落
来听今天的讲解:
A: Saskia, I'm doing some research about ancient cultures in South America. Which one do you think I should choose?
萨斯珂雅．我正在对南美的古代文化做些研究。你认为我应该选什么？
B: I think the Maya are your best bet, there's so much information available about them.
我觉得玛雅人应该是最好的选择，这方面的资料很丰富。
A: Maya….OK. There's certainly a lot of them! They Lived all over Mexico, in Tabasco, Chiapas, Guatemala, Belize and Western Honduras.
玛雅人……好的。的确有关他们的信息太多!他们遍布墨西哥各地，在塔巴斯科、恰帕斯、危地马拉、伯利兹城和西洪都拉斯。
B:They were believed to be the most intelligent of the ancient cultures. The culture's beginnings have been traced back to 1500BC, entering the Classic period about AD 300 and flourishing between AD 600 and AD 900.
玛雅人被认为是古代文明中最聪明的人。玛雅文明的开始可以追溯到公元前1500年，公元300年进入古典期，公元600至公元900年走向繁荣期。
A: They seemed to be exceUent farmers, too. They cultivated maize. beans, squash, and chili peppers, and also "cash crops" of corton and cacao.
玛雅人好像也是非常出色的农民。他们种植玉米、豆类、南瓜和辣椒，还有经济作物棉花和恒星豆。
B: This can't have been easy, the climate was inhospitable. They also built their settlements next to " cenotes" , natural watering holes.
这些可不是容另种植的，因为那里的气候不太适宜。他们还在靠近“怪井”（天然水井）的地方建起了自己的居住地。
A: The Maya devised a complex style of hieroglyphic writing that has yet to be fully deciphered and they knew lots about science, maths and astrology.
玛雅人发明了一种复杂的象形文字，到现在还没有被完全破译。他们懂得很多科学、数学和占星术知识。
B: They used maths and astronomy to predict eclipses and other heavenly events with great precision and formlulatcd a unlquc calendar system more exact than the one we use today.
他们用数学和天文学来预测口食和其他天文事件，非常精确。此外，还设计出独一无的历法体系，比我们今天用的还要准确。
A: That's amazing! It says here that they were very religios too, but chey accepted science and religion together. That's interesting, because nowadays we think of science and religion as being totally differem things.
真了不起！据说他们也比较信奉宗教，但对科学和宗教一并接受。如今我们把科学和宗教当作完全不同的两种东西，所以这种观点很有意思。
B: Their architecture was very interesting too, like all cultures in Mesoamerica.They built tall pyranudal temples, warren-like sintlle story palaces and courts around a broad centnl plaza.
他们的建筑也很特别，就像中美洲所有文明一样。他们在宽阔的扣央广场周围建起高高的金字塔形寺庙，迷官般的单层宫殿和庭院。
A: Hmm…. they painted many exotic murah too, usually containing the human form.
嗯……他们还画了很多异国情调的壁画，通常少不了人体绘画。
B: They were also very talented in working with ceramics and stoneware.
他们还在陶器和瓷器制作方面很有天赋。
A: But why did such a wonderful, gifted civilization fall? Why did they disappear?
可为什么这样一个神奇伟大的文明会衰落呢？他们为什么会消失？
B: Now that, my fiiend, is an interesting story. I've heard some people say that aliens took them away because they were much too advanced to be human.
我的朋友．这事说起来非常有意恩。我听有些人说是外星人把他们带走了，因为他们太高级了，不能再做人类。
A: That can't be true! Maybe it was because of insuflicient food supply, earthquake, pestilence, invasion by outsiders, internal rebellion or a combination of these factors.
这不可能是真的！也许是因为食物不足、地震、瘟疫、外族入侵、内部叛乱或这些因采综合在一起造成的。
B: Well, whatever it was, by AD 900 the Maya’s nimerous ceremonial centers had been abandoned.
好了,不管是什么原因，到公元900年的时候，玛雅人无数的仪式中心都废弃了。
