2018年双语新闻 故宫网红猫白点儿去世（在线收听）

World Cup cat dies before event ends

故宫网红猫白点儿去世

A stray cat living at Beijing's Palace Museum died on Monday after becoming an online sensation

成功预测今年世界杯6场比赛赛果的故宫流浪猫成了网红，

for making six successful predictions for this year's World Cup.

然而这只小猫却在本周一去世了。

The cat, named Baidianr, which literally means "white spot",

6月14日，这只名叫“白点儿”的猫咪预测了世界杯开幕赛的赛果，

quickly won the hearts of tens of thousands of netizens after it made its first guess for the opening game on June 14.

它很快便获得了成千上万位网友的喜爱。

Before each game, staff members at the museum would put two bowls of cat food in front of Baidianr,

每场比赛开始前，故宫的工作人员都会将两碗猫粮摆在白点儿面前，

each with the national flag of the competing countries, to see which bowl Baidianr would go for.

碗上分别插有比赛球队的国旗，看看它会选择哪一碗。

The chosen bowl was the cat's predicted winner.

白点儿所选中的碗便对应着它预测的获胜者。

Baidianr made its first successful guess by picking Russia in the opening game.

白点儿首次成功预测了俄罗斯在开幕赛中胜出的赛果，

It was rewarded for its accuracy with dried baby fish.

还被奖励了小鱼干。

It then failed a few times,

但后面的几次预测都失败了，

after which the official Sina Weibo account of the Palace Museum posted pictures of Baidianr hiding its face behind its paws in shame.

故宫的新浪微博官方账号还发了几张白点儿羞愧地将小脸藏在爪子后面的照片。

The pictures soon generated huge attention online.

这些照片很快在网上引发了极大关注。

Each Baidianr-related post would attract thousands of comments and reposts, whether the cat's prediction was right or not.

不论预测正确与否，每一条和白点儿相关的微博都会有数千条评论和转发。

When Baidianr made its sixth consecutive successful guess on June 26, picking Argentina over Nigeria,

6月26日，白点儿连续第六次猜中获胜者，这次它预测了阿根廷将战胜尼日利亚，

more than 8,000 netizens left comments saying they had prepared the best quality cat food and snacks as a reward.

此时8000多位网友留下评论，表示要准备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.

然而，第二天，故宫博物院却表示白点儿病得很重，已被送往宠物医院救治。

It said on last Wednesday afternoon that the cat's hind legs had become suddenly paralyzed and it began breathing heavily and meowed in pain.

据称，上周三下午，白点儿的后腿突然瘫痪，呼吸急促，并痛苦呻吟。

The museum opened a special Sina Weibo account under the cat's name

故宫博物院为白点儿开了个特殊的微博账号，

to update the cat's treatment progress and health condition, drawing more than 21,000 followers.

用于更新其治疗进展和健康状况，该账号目前已有超过2.1万粉丝关注。

Sadly, on Monday at around 8 am, the account announced that Baidianr had died. "Sorry," it said.

遗憾的是，周一上午8点左右，该账号宣布白点儿去世了。“对不起，”该账号发文道。

Thousands of comments were posted to bid the cat farewell.

网友留下了数千条评论和白点儿道别。

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，第二只猫“长腿儿”接棒继续进行预测。它已经连续两次成功选中胜者。