A stray cat living at Beijing’s Palace Museum died on Monday after becoming an online sensation for making six successful predictions for this year’s World Cup.
本周一,北京故宫博物院的一只流浪猫走了,之前它曾因连续六次成功预测今年世界杯的比赛结果在网上疯传。
The cat, named Baidianr, which literally means "white spot", quickly won the hearts of tens of thousands of netizens after it made its first guess for the opening game on June 14.
这只名叫"Baidianr",字面意思"白点儿"的猫,在6月14日成功预测开幕赛后迅速赢得万千网友的青睐.
Before each game, staff members at the museum would put two bowls of cat food in front of Baidianr, each with the national flag of the competing countries, to see which bowl Baidianr would go for. The chosen bowl was the cat’s predicted winner.
比赛开始之前,博物馆的工作人员会放两个装了猫粮的碗在白点儿面前,每个碗上有国旗代表一个国家,看看白点会去吃哪个碗里的猫粮。选择的那个就是猫预测的获胜者。
Baidianr made its first successful guess by picking Russia in the opening game. It was rewarded for its accuracy with baby dried fish. It then failed a few times, after which the official Sina Weibo account of the Palace Museum posted pictures of Baidianr hiding its face behind its paws in shame.
白点儿在世界杯首场比赛挑选了俄罗斯从而做出了它的第一个成功预测。它因猜的准而被奖励小鱼干,之后却猜错了好几次,在这之后,故宫博物院的官方新浪微博账号贴出了白点儿羞愧地用小爪子挡住脸的照片。
The pictures soon generated huge attention online. Each Baidianr-related post would attract thousands of comments and reposts, whether the cat’s prediction was right or not.
这张图片随即产生了巨大的关注度。每一篇与白点儿有关的帖子都会吸引成千上万的评论以及转发,不论这只猫的预测是否正确。
When Baidianr made its sixth consecutive successful guess on June 26 - picking Argentina over Nigeria - more than 8,000 netizens left comments saying they had prepared the best quality cat food and snacks as a reward.
6月26日,当白点儿连续第六次猜对比赛结果,即预测阿根廷战胜胜尼日利亚时,超过8000名网民评论表示,他们已经准备了最好的猫粮和零食作为奖励。
The next day, however, the museum reported that the cat had fallen seriously ill and was sent to hospital. It said on Wednesday afternoon that the cat’s hind legs had become suddenly paralyzed and it began breathing heavily and meowed in pain.
然而在第二天,故宫博物馆称白点儿突然身陷重病,并被送进医院。据称,周三下午,白点儿的后腿突然瘫痪,并且呼吸开始变得沉重,痛苦地喵喵叫着。
The museum opened a special Sina Weibo account under the cat’s name to update the cat’s treatment progress and health condition, drawing more than 21,000 followers.
博物院以"故宫白点儿"为名开设了一个新的微博账号,上传白点的治疗进展和健康状况,关注者达2万1千人。
Sadly, on Monday at around 8 am, the account announced that Baidianr had died. "Sorry," it said.
不幸的是,周一上午8点左右,该帐号宣布白点儿已经死亡了。只剩下“对不起,还是没能留住它”的微博消息。
Thousands of comments were posted to bid the cat farewell. If it’s true that a cat has nine lives, this story may continue, perhaps with the next World Cup.
数千网友在微博下方留言评论与白点儿告别. 如果"猫有九命"的传说是真的,白点儿的故事或许会继续下去,就在下届世界杯也说不定。
Meanwhile, a second cat, named Changtuir (long leg), is filling in. It has correctly chosen the winning bowl two consecutive times.
与此同时,另一只叫changtuir(长腿?)的猫填补了白点儿的空白。它已经连续两次正确预测了获胜队伍(正确选择了那碗对应获胜队伍的猫粮)。
新年伊始,听说有好多同学声称自己去年的读书li...
不知是不是因为今年疫情的缘故,总觉得时间过得...
2020年即将过去,本年度的【好书荐读】系列也迎...