5 The facts

Editors of newspapers and magazines often go to extremes to provide their readers with unimportant facts and statistics.

报刊杂志的编辑常常为了向读者提供成立一些无关紧要的事实和统计数字而走向极端。

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。

When the article arrived, the editor read the first sentence and then refused to publish it.

稿子寄来后,编辑看了第一句话就拒绝予以发表。

The article began: ‘Hundreds of steps lead to the high wall which surrounds the president's palace.’

文章的开头是这样的:“几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。

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

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。