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An octopus in Germany called Paul who has shot to stardom for his spot-on World Cup predictions forecast on Tuesday a quarter-final win by Germany over Argentina.
But in view perhaps of the tougher opposition that Diego Maradona's side will pose Germany on Saturday than England did last Sunday, the eight-legged soccer soothsayer took more than an hour to decide.
Ahead of the England game, which saw Germany's young guns demolish Fabio Capello's ageing Premier League stars 4-1, Paul needed just eight seconds to make up his mind.
Saturday's encounter in Cape Town, therefore, might go to extra time -- or even penalties.
Two plastic boxes, one with a German flag and one with their opponent's, are lowered into Paul's tank at Sea Life in Oberhausen in western Germany, each with a tasty morsel of food inside.
The box which Paul opens first is adjudged to be his predicted winner.
Earlier in the tournament, the eight-legged oracle correctly tipped Germany to beat Ghana and Australia in their Group D matches. And proving he is not just attracted by Germany's flag, he also correctly predicted a loss to Serbia.
Even though he was born in England, he also treacherously but correctly foretold Germany's win over his native country in their last-16 clash on Sunday.
Argentina coach Maradona should not throw in the towel just yet, however, as Paul has been wrong before. For the European Championships in 2008, his success rate was only 80 percent.
(Read by Renee Haines. Renee Haines is a journalist at the China Daily Web site.)
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(Agencies)
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德國一只因準確預測世界杯賽果而一舉成名的章魚“保羅”于本周二又做出了新的預測：德國隊將在四分之一決賽中打敗阿根廷隊。
但可能是考慮到相比于上周日的英格蘭隊而言，德國隊本周六的對手、由迪亞哥·馬拉多納率領的阿根廷隊更為強勁，所以這位八只腳的足球預言家花了一個多小時才做出決定。
在德國對陣英格蘭的比賽前，保羅只花了8秒鐘就做出了決定。在這場比賽中，年輕的德國隊以4比1大勝由法比奧?卡佩羅率領的擁有眾多英超球星、但年齡偏大的英格蘭隊。
因此，德國和阿根廷本周六在開普敦的對決可能會出現加時賽，甚至可能會以點球定勝負。
保羅的家在德國西部奧伯豪森的一個海洋館里。海洋館工作人員將兩個塑料盒子放進保羅所在的玻璃缸中，一個盒子上貼著德國國旗，另一個盒子是對手的國旗，每個盒子里裝有一小塊食物作為誘餌。
保羅先打開哪個盒子，表明那個盒子所代表的國家就將獲勝。
在之前的比賽中，保羅曾言中德國隊將戰勝同在D組的加納和澳大利亞隊。但不要以為這是因為保羅對德國國旗情有獨鐘，它曾預測德國將輸給塞爾維亞，而事實也確實如此。
盡管保羅出生于英國，它卻“背叛”了自己的祖國，正確預測出德國隊在上周日的八強賽中會戰勝英國。
然而，阿根廷隊主帥馬拉多納不必因此而認輸，因為保羅之前也失手過。在2008年的“歐洲杯”比賽中，它的預測準確率僅為80%。
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（中國日報網英語點津 陳丹妮 編輯蔡姍姍）
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