一、【Text】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 telegram
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
telegram 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.
二、【New words and expressions】生词和短语
◆editor n. 编辑
◆extreme n. 极端
◆statistics n. 统计数字
◆journalist n. 新闻记者
◆president n. 总统
◆palace n.王宫；宏伟的住宅
◆publish v. 出版
◆fax n. 传真
◆impatient adj. 不耐烦的
◆fire v. 解雇
◆originally adv. 起初，原先，从前
★editor n. 编辑
edit vt. 编辑
edition n.编辑
editorial adj. 编辑的，主编的；n. 社论，评论
★extreme n. 极端
go to extreme(s) to do 走极端
Eg: 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
journalist (杂志) 新闻记者
reproter (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