Lesson 5 The Facts
第五课事实
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?
编辑坚持事实和统计数据的后果是什么？
Editors of newspapers and magazines often go to extremes to provide their readers with unimportant facts and statistics.
报纸和杂志的编辑经常走极端，向读者提供不重要的事实和统计数据。
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.
去年，一名记者受一家著名杂志的指示，写了一篇关于新非洲共和国总统府的文章。
When the article arrived, the editor read the first sentence and then refused to publish it.
文章到达后，编辑读了第一句话，然后拒绝发表。
The article began, Hundreds of steps lead to the high wall which surrounds the President's Palace.
文章开头写道：数百级台阶通向环绕总统府的高墙。
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.
编辑立即给记者发了一份传真，指示他找出确切的台阶数和墙的高度。
The journalist immediately set out to obtain these important facts but he took a long time to send them.
记者立即着手获取这些重要事实，但他花了很长时间才把它们寄出去。
Meanwhile, the editor was getting impatient for the magazine would soon go to press.
与此同时，编辑对杂志即将付印感到不耐烦了。
He sent the journalist two more faxes but received no reply.
他又给记者发了两份传真，但没有收到回复。
He sent yet another fax informing the journalist that if he did not reply soon, he would be fired.
他又发了一份传真，通知记者，如果他不尽快回复，他将被解雇。
When the journalist again failed to reply, the editor reluctantly published the article as it had originally been written.
当记者再次没有回复时，编辑不情愿地按原样发表了这篇文章。
A week later, the editor at last received a fax from the journalist.
一周后，编辑终于收到了记者的传真。
Not only had the poor man been arrested but he had been sent to prison as well.
这个可怜的人不仅被捕了，还被送进了监狱。
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 15-foot wall which surrounded the President's Palace.
然而，他终于被允许发送一份传真，通知编辑他是在数通往总统府周围15英尺高的墙的1,084级台阶时被捕的。