Lesson 5 The facts 确切数字

What was the consequence of the editor’s insistence on facts and statistics?

Para1:

① Editors of newspapers and magazines often go to extremes to provide their readers with unimportant facts and statistics. ② 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. ③ When the article arrived, the editor read the first sentence and then refused to publish it. ④ The article began: ‘Hundreds of steps lead to the high wall which surrounds the president’s palace.’ ⑤ The editor at once sent the journalist a fax instructing him to find out the exact number of steps and the height of the wall.

报刊杂志的编辑常常为了向读者提供成立一些关紧要的事实和统计数字而走向极端。去年，一位记者受一家有名的杂志的委托写一篇关于非洲某个新成立共和国总统府的文章。稿子寄来后，编辑看第一句话就拒绝予以发表。文章的开头是这样的：“几百级台阶通向环绕总统的高墙。”编辑立即给那位记者发去传真，要求他核实一下台阶的确切数字和围墙的高度。
go to extreme to do sth: 为做某事走极端（无所不用其极）；事情做得太过。extreme：adj. /ɪkˈstriːm/ 异乎寻常的；严重的；严厉的 It was the most extreme example of cruelty to animals I had ever seen. 这是我见过的最严重的虐待动物的事例。

• go to extreme to do sth: 为做某事走极端（无所不用其极）；事情做得太过。extreme：adj. /ɪkˈstriːm/ 异乎寻常的；严重的；严厉的 It was the most extreme example of cruelty to animals I had ever seen. 这是我见过的最严重的虐待动物的事例。
• provide sb with sth: 为某人提供某物。
• be instructed by：被…要求的 instruct V. /ɪnˈstrʌkt/ 在这里是动词，指示、吩咐的意思。/ɪnˈstrʌkt/。这个词的名词形式：instruction（指示；吩咐） 同时也是指药品或者包装盒里的使用说明书。
• to write an article on, 写一篇有关的报道。
  • on 在这里相当于 about，是关于的意思。
• republic：共和国。比方说中华人民共和国的 就是People’s Republic of China英文简写是PRC
• send sb a fax：给某人发送传真
• instruct sb to do sth：注意和上文联系起来看。被动语态是：A instructed by B to do sth
• lead to …作“通往……”、“导致……”解

Para2（1）

① The journalist immediately set out to obtain these important facts, but he took a long time to send them. ② Meanwhile, the editor was getting impatient, for the magazine would soon go to press. ③He sent the journalist two more faxes, but received no reply. ④ He sent yet another fax informing the journalist that if he did not reply soon he would be fired. ⑤ When the journalist again failed to reply, the editor reluctantly published the article as it had originally been written.

记者立即出发去核实这些重要的事实，但过了好长时间不见他把数字寄来，在此期间，编辑等得不耐烦了，因为杂志马上要付印。他给记者先后发去两份传真，但对方毫无反应。于是他又发了一份传真，通知那位记者说，若再不迅速答复，将被解雇。但记者还是没有回复。编辑无奈，勉强按原样发稿了。

• set out to do sth：打算；着手做某事
• go to press：交付印刷。
• yet 在这里强调数量或者次数的增加。Prices were cut yet again (= once more, after many other times) . 物价再一次降低。
• inform sb that= inform sb sth 通知某人某事
• reluctantly不情愿地 虽然unwillingly也表示不情愿，但是 reluctantly 多了一层嫌恶的意思，非常讨厌。
• as it had originally been written：就按它最初写的那个样子。as 在这里是正如，如同的意思。

Para2(2)

① A week later, the editor at last received a fax from the journalist. ② Not only had the poor man been arrested, but he had been sent to prison as well. ③ However, he had at last been allowed to send a fax in which he informed the editor that he had been arrested while counting the 1084 steps leading to the 15-foot wall which surrounded the president’s palace.

一周之后，编辑终于接到记者的传真。那个可怜的记者不仅被捕了，而且还被送进了监狱。不过，他终于获准发回了一份传真。在传真中他告诉编辑，就在他数通向15英尺高的总统府围墙的1，084级台阶时，被抓了起来。

• in which 的意思是“在其中；在…里面”，引导定语从句，which 代指 “fax”，been allowed to send a fax in which… 即 he informed the editor in the fax that…
• while 在这里是连词，是在……期间；在……的过程中 的意思
• leading to 一词多义，在这里并不是我们熟悉的“导致”，而是“通向”。All roads lead to Rome 条条大路通罗马