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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
editor
n. 編輯
extreme
n. 極端
statistics
n. 統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)字
journalist
n. 新聞?dòng)浾?br>
president
n. 總統(tǒng)
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(bào)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(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)字而走向極端。去年，一位記者受一家有名的雜志的委托寫一篇關(guān)于非洲某個(gè)新成立共和國總統(tǒng)府的文章。稿子寄來后，編輯看第一句話就拒絕予以發(fā)表。文章的開頭是這樣的：“幾百級(jí)臺(tái)階通向環(huán)繞總統(tǒng)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(tái)階的確切數(shù)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)，但過了好長時(shí)間不見他把數(shù)字寄來，在此期間，編輯等得不耐煩了，因?yàn)殡s志馬上要付印。他給記者先后發(fā)去兩份傳真，但對(duì)方毫無反應(yīng)。于是他又發(fā)了一份傳真，通知那位記者說，若再不迅速答復(fù)，將被解雇。但記者還是沒有回復(fù)。編輯無奈，勉強(qiáng)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(jiān)獄。不過，他終于獲準(zhǔn)發(fā)回了一份傳真。在傳真中他告訴編輯，就在他數(shù)通向15英尺高的總統(tǒng)府圍墻的1，084級(jí)臺(tái)階時(shí)，被抓了起來。
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