新概念英语第三册 Lesson 05(课文1)

英语自学网

　　Text
Lesson 5 The facts 确切数字
　　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.
　　Language points
　　1, Editors of newspapers and magazines often go to extremes to provide their readers with unimportant facts and statistics.
　　go to extremes 走极端
　　provide 给...，提供（通常与介词搭配连用）
　　provide sb. With sth. / provide sth. for sb.
　　e.g. He provided them with a bed for the night.
　　He provided a bed for them for the night.
　　2, 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.
　　instruct sb. to do sth ==tell sb. formally to do sth. 正式告诉某人做某事
　　本句的主动语态是：A well-known magazine instructed a journalist to write an article on the president's palace in a new African republic.
　　e.g.The teacher instructed him to take the examination.
　　on =about 侧重强调课题专一
　　e.g. a book on radio