05 · 确切数字
The Facts
读懂长句与段落衔接，分清事实、推断和观点，再连贯复述或说明。
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点选一句，句末即可听读；连起意思，大声读一遍。
Editors of newspapers and magazines often go to extremes to provide their readers 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 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 fax 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 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 he had been arrested while counting the 1,084 steps leading to the fifteen-foot wall which surrounded the president's palace.
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整篇课文
Editors of newspapers and magazines often go to extremes to provide their readers 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 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 fax 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 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 he had been arrested while counting the 1,084 steps leading to the fifteen-foot wall which surrounded the president's palace.
报刊杂志的编辑，为了向读者交代一些无关紧要的事实和数字，往往会较真到极点。去年，一家知名杂志派一位记者写一篇文章，介绍非洲一个新成立的共和国的总统府。稿件送到后，编辑只看了第一句话，就拒绝发表。文章开头写道：“几百级台阶通向总统府四周的高墙。”编辑立即给记者发传真，要求他查清台阶到底有多少级、围墙究竟有多高。
记者立刻动身去核实这些“重要”的数据，却迟迟没有发回来。眼看杂志就要付印，编辑等得越来越不耐烦。他又接连发了两份传真，依然没有收到回复。于是，他再次发出传真，通知记者：再不尽快回复，就会被解雇。记者仍无音讯，编辑只好不情愿地按原稿发表了文章。一星期后，他终于收到记者的传真。原来，这位可怜的记者不但被捕，还被关进了监狱，好不容易才获准发出一份传真。他在传真里说，自己当时正在数通向总统府围墙的台阶，一共1,084级，围墙高15英尺，就在这时被抓了起来。
学完这一课
给一条消息补 doing 短语，明确它传达了什么要求。
译文依据整理稿，由本站按中文表达重新校订；解析据吴应时、何景霖整理资料及首轮审校稿；词伙与练习提示为本站学习设计。原PDF第23—25页，2022年2月第3版。