新概念美音版第三冊 Lesson 5 The facts確切數字

 
Lesson 5 The facts確切數字

Listen to the tape then answer the question below.
聽錄音，然後回答以下問題。
What was the consequence of the editor's insistence on facts and statistics?

    Editors of newspapers and magazines often go to extremes to provide their reader with unimportant facts and statistics. Last year a journalist had been instructed by a well-known magazine to write an article on the president's palace in a new African republic. When the article arrived, the editor read the first sentence and then refuse to publish it. The article began: 'Hundreds of steps lead to the high wall which surrounds the president's palace'. The editor at once sent the journalist a fax instructing him find out the exact number of steps and the height of the wall.
    The journalist immediately set out to obtain these important facts, but the took a long time to send them Meanwhile, the editor was getting impatient, for the magazine would soon go to press. He sent the journalist two more faxes, but received no reply. He sent yet another fax informing the journalist that if he did not reply soon he would be fired. When the journalist again failed to reply, the editor reluctantly published the article as it had originally been written. A week later, the editor at last received a fax from the journalist. Not only had the poor man been arrested, but he had been sent to prison as well. However, he had at last been allowed to send a fax in which he informed the editor that the he had been arrested while counting the 1,084 steps leading to the fifteen-foot wall which surrounded the president's palace.

New words and expressions 生詞和短語

     editor
n.   編輯

     extreme
n.   極端

     statistics
n.   統計數字

     journalist
n.   新聞記者

     president
n.   總統

     palace
n.   王宮；宏偉的住宅

     publish
v.   出版

     fax
n.   傳真

     impatient
adj. 不耐煩的

     fire
v.   解雇

     originally
adv. 起初，原先，從前

參考譯文

    報刊雜誌的編輯常常為了向讀者提供成立一些關緊要的事實和統計數字而走向極端。去年，一位記者受一家有名的雜誌的委托寫一篇關於非洲某個新成立共和國總統府的文章。稿子寄來後，編輯看第一句話就拒絕予以發表。文章的開頭是這樣的：“幾百級台階通向環繞總統的高牆。”編輯立即給那位記者發去傳真，要求他核實一下台階的確切數字和圍牆的高度。
    記者立即出發去核實這些重要的事實，但過了好長時間不見他把數字寄來，在此期間，編輯等得不耐煩了，因為雜誌馬上要付印。他給記者先後發去兩份傳真，但對方毫無反應。於是他又發了一份傳真，通知那位記者說，若再不迅速答複，將被解雇。但記者還是沒有回複。編輯無奈，勉強按原樣發稿了。一周之後，編輯終於接到記者的傳真。那個可憐的記者不僅被捕了，而且還被送進了監獄。不過，他終於獲準發回了一份傳真。在傳真中他告訴編輯，就在他數通向15英尺高的總統府圍牆的1，084級台階時，被抓了起來。