新概念英语第三册课堂笔记 第五课
 
Lesson 5
            The facts
             确切数字
【New words and expressions】 生词和短语

     ★editor
n.   编辑
edit:(v.)编辑
edition:(n.)编辑
editorial:(a)编辑的，主编的
　　　　　(n.)社论，评论

     ★extreme
n.   极端
go to extreme(s) to do: 走极端
He went to extreme to say that the play was the best one.
He went to extremes to say that his girlfriend was the most beautiful in the world.
go from one extreme to the other

     ★statistics
n.   统计数字

     ★journalist
n.   新闻记者
reporter:(电视台）记者
correspondent:(电台）记者，通讯员

     ★president
n.   总统

     ★palace
n.   王宫；宏伟的住宅

     ★publish
v.   出版
They have already published the magazine
=print(vt.),go to press
The book has already been published.
The book has gone to press.

     ★fax
n.   传真
send a fax

     ★impatient
adj. 不耐烦的
patient :有耐心的
patiently:有耐心地
impatient:不耐烦的
impatiently:不耐烦地
n.: patience,impatience

     ★fire
v.   解雇
He was fired from his job
dismiss(正式）
The manage dismissed him from his company.
sack(俚语)“解雇，辞退“
If you do it wrong again you will be sacked.

     ★originally
adv. 起初，原先，从前
original (a.)

Listen to the tape then answer the question below.
听录音，然后回答以下问题。
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.

参考译文

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