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Editors of newspapers and magazines
Often go to extremes to provide their
readers with unimportant facts and statis-
tics. 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 refused 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 telegram instructing
him to find out the exact number of steps
and the height of the wall.
The journalist immediately set out to
obtain these important facts, but he took a long time to send them.
Meanwhile,
the editor was getting impatient, for the magazine woul1d soon go to
press. He
sent the journalist two urgent telegrams, but received no reply. He
sent yet
another telegram informing the journalist that if he did not reply
soon he would
be fired. When the journalist again failed to reply, the editor
reluctantly pub-
lished the article as it had originally been written. A week later,
the editor at
last received a telegram 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 cable in which he informed the editor that he had
been
arrested while counting the 1o84 steps leading to the 15-foot wall
which sur-
rounded the president's palace.
New words and expressions 生詞和短語(yǔ)
editor
n. 編輯
extreme
n. 極端
statistics
n. 統計數字
journalist
n. 新聞?dòng)浾?br>
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
報刊雜志的編輯常常為了向讀者提供成立一些關(guān)緊要的事實(shí)和統計數字而走向極端。去年，一位記者受一家有名的雜志的委托寫(xiě)一篇關(guān)于非洲某個(gè)新成立共和國總統府的文章。稿子寄來(lái)后，編輯看第一句話(huà)就拒絕予以發(fā)表。文章的開(kāi)頭是這樣的：“幾百級臺階通向環(huán)繞總統的高墻�！本庉嬃⒓唇o那位記者發(fā)去傳真，要求他核實(shí)一下臺階的確切數字和圍墻的高度。
記者立即出發(fā)去核實(shí)這些重要的事實(shí)，但過(guò)了好長(cháng)時(shí)間不見(jiàn)他把數字寄來(lái)，在此期間，編輯等得不耐煩了，因為雜志馬上要付印。他給記者先后發(fā)去兩份傳真，但對方毫無(wú)反應。于是他又發(fā)了一份傳真，通知那位記者說(shuō)，若再不迅速答復，將被解雇。但記者還是沒(méi)有回復。編輯無(wú)奈，勉強按原樣發(fā)稿了。一周之后，編輯終于接到記者的傳真。那個(gè)可憐的記者不僅被捕了，而且還被送進(jìn)了監獄。不過(guò)，他終于獲準發(fā)回了一份傳真。在傳真中他告訴編輯，就在他數通向15英尺高的總統府圍墻的1，084級臺階時(shí)，被抓了起來(lái)。
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