圣树
课文学习台
The Sacred Tree
读懂并复述短故事，说明动作的先后、原因与人物反应。
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In the nineteenth century, Mugo Kibiru, a famous prophet of the Kikuyu tribe, foretold that a fig tree at Thika, twenty-six miles north of Nairobi, would wither and die on the day that Kenya gained independence. Kibiru also prophesied that Kenya would become a white man's colony, but that one day the white man would return the land to the Africans. He foresaw the coming of the railway which he described as 'an iron snake with many legs, like an earthworm'. Kibiru's prophecies proved to be so accurate that for many years the tree at Thika was regarded as sacred. Even the white men took the prophecy seriously, for they built the tree up with earth and put a concrete wall around it so that it would not fall. These measures were doomed to fail. Shortly before Kenya gained independence, the tree was struck by lightning and it began to wither rapidly. By the day Kenya officially became independent, it had decayed completely, fulfilling the prophecy made over seventy years before by Kibiru.
在19世纪，肯尼亚一位著名的预言家 Mugo Kibiru预言：锡卡有一棵无花果树，会在肯尼亚获得独立的那一天枯萎死去。 锡卡在内罗毕往北26英里处。Kibiru 还预言肯尼亚将会变成白种人的殖民地，而且有一天白种人会将土地归还给非洲人。他预见铁路的到来，他描述为“一条有着很多腿的钢铁之蛇，就像蚯蚓”。 Kibiru 的预言被证明非常精准，所以多年以来，锡卡的树也被认为是神圣的。甚至白种人也把预言当回事，因为他们在树周围培土，又围了一圈混凝土墙，以防树倒塌。这些措施注定失败。就在肯尼亚获得独立前不久，这棵圣树就被闪电击中，并迅速枯萎。在肯尼亚正式独立当天，圣树也完全腐烂，基比鲁七十多年前作出的预言得以实现。
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译文与解析据吴应时整理资料及本站首轮审校稿；词伙与练习提示为本站学习设计。原PDF第238—239页，2022年3月第1版。