The facts

確切數(shù)字

Editors of newspapers and magazines often go to extremes to provide their reader 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 refuse 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 find out the exact number of steps and the height of the wall.

The journalist immediately set out to obtain these important facts, but the 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 the he had been arrested while counting the 1,084 steps leading to the fifteen-foot wall which surrounded the president's palace.

報刊雜志的編輯常常為了向讀者提供成立一些關(guān)緊要的事實和統(tǒng)計數(shù)字而走向極端。去年，一位記者受一家有名的雜志的委托寫一篇關(guān)于非洲某個新成立共和國總統(tǒng)府的文章。稿子寄來后，編輯看第一句話就拒絕予以發(fā)表。文章的開頭是這樣的：“幾百級臺階通向環(huán)繞總統(tǒng)的高墻。”編輯立即給那位記者發(fā)去傳真，要求他核實一下臺階的確切數(shù)字和圍墻的高度。

記者立即出發(fā)去核實這些重要的事實，但過了好長時間不見他把數(shù)字寄來，在此期間，編輯等得不耐煩了，因為雜志馬上要付印。他給記者先后發(fā)去兩份傳真，但對方毫無反應。于是他又發(fā)了一份傳真，通知那位記者說，若再不迅速答復，將被解雇。但記者還是沒有回復。編輯無奈，勉強按原樣發(fā)稿了。一周之后，編輯終于接到記者的傳真。那個可憐的記者不僅被捕了，而且還被送進了監(jiān)獄。不過，他終于獲準發(fā)回了一份傳真。在傳真中他告訴編輯，就在他數(shù)通向15英尺高的總統(tǒng)府圍墻的1，084級臺階時，被抓了起來。

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