---
url: https://gaojian.site/new-concept/book-3/05-the-facts.md
description: 新概念英语第三册：The Facts。精读、词块回忆、双向译练、句法、逻辑与FSRS复习。
---

# 05 · 确切数字

### 第1段

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.

中文理解：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。

* **go to extremes**：走极端；做得过头；指出为达目的做得过分，不是普通的努力。

* **refused to**：拒绝做；偏偏不；人可拒绝，拟人时也可形容机器不肯运转。

* **lead to**：通向；导致；本课先讲台阶通向围墙；迁移到抽象情境可说 lead to problems。

* **find out**：查明；得知；重在查明信息；寻找一件物品通常说 look for。

* **set out**：着手；开始有目的地行动；set out to do 表着手或打算做，本册第5、16、31课按目标行动理解；带地点时也可说出发。

* **took a long time**：花了很长时间；事情 + take time；人作主语时常用 spend time doing。

* **go to press**：付印；常用于报刊书籍的出版流程。

* **received no reply**：没有收到回复；no 限定 reply，否定结果；receive a reply to a message。

* **failed to**：未能做到；客观说未能做到，不一定意味着能力不足。

* **at last**：终于；强调等待或困难之后终于发生，不只是列举最后一个步骤。

* **Not only**：不但；不仅；连接形式相称的两项；只有特定前置结构才引起倒装，不能一律倒装。

* **sent to prison**：送进监狱；be sent to prison 表示入狱；prison 前不加冠词。

* **while counting**：在数数的时候；while doing 的省略主语要与主句主语一致。

#### 原文注释 · Editors of newspapers and magazines often go to extremes to provide their readers with unimportant facts and statistics.

注释：①journalist = reporter/correspondent。②well-known = famous。③instructed = ordered, commissioned；instruct sb. to do sth.=tell sb. formally to do sth.。④publish = print, issue。⑤surrounds = encircles。

#### 原文注释 · The journalist immediately set out to obtain these important facts, but he took a long time to send them.

注释：①set out to do sth.= decide and try to do sth. ②fired = sacked, dismissed。 ③reluctantly = unwillingly。④本句 not only 放在句首，强调“被捕”这一谓语内容，因此助动词 had 提到主语前，形成部分倒装；表示否定的状语置于句首时也常如此，比如 never had I…。若 not only 只连接并修饰主语，则不因此倒装，不能仅凭句首出现这些词就判断。⑤allow sb. to do sth.不定式作sb.的补语，但此句被动，所以作主语he 的补语。⑥in which 引导的定语从句属于“介词+关系代词”，这种结构只能which 指物，whom 指人。⑦while+doing sth.现在分词短语作时间状语相当于状语从句。

\[语法符号讲解] \[1]本句that 引导的从句作inform 的宾语，这里属于状语中的细分。与此同时，该宾语从句中还包括一个if 引导的条件状语从句。我们在soon 后面画了两个“]]”，第一个表示soon 本身作为状语，第二个则对应if，表示条件状语从句到此结束。

\[2]本句in which 引导的定语从句直至句末，这个从句中包括一个that 引导的宾语从句，也是到句末，在这个宾语从句中，又含有一个which 引导的定语从句，这就要求我们在最后palace 上进行标记，两个右括号都要放在点句号右边，然后单词的最后一两个字母要跟点句号一起予以标记，表示宾语从句到此结束，因为该宾语从句中只含有一个定语从句，故只能标记一个右括号，即“e.))”，第二个括号不加下划线了。

#### Summary 摘要

Though the journalist immediately set out to get the facts after receiving instructions from his editor, he did not send them at once. Meanwhile, the editor was getting impatient, so he sent three faxes, finally threatening to fire the journalist(威胁炒这名记者的鱿鱼). When the last fax was unanswered, the article was published in its original form. The journalist sent the editor a fax a week later explaining he had been imprisoned after counting the steps and measuring the height of the wall. (80 words)

#### Composition 作文

The journalist counted the number of steps as he wearily climbed up to the high wall surrounding the president's palace. On arriving at the main gate, he sat down to get his breath back(缓口气). He then produced a tape measure(卷尺) in order to measure the wall. While he was busy measuring the wall, a policeman approached him and asked him what he was doing. Though the journalist explained he was a reporter and his editor had asked him to find out the exact height of the wall, the policeman refused to believe him. He was arrested and sent to prison because the police thought that he might be a spy or might even want to assassinate(v.暗杀) the president. When the journalist insisted he was innocent, he made things worse for himself. This proved to the police that the man certainly was guilty and deserved to stay in prison indefinitely. (149 words)

## 学完这一课

给一条消息补 doing 短语，明确它传达了什么要求。

[Nce · 本册复习台](/new-concept/book-3/review) · [三册选择地图](/new-concept/)

*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。*