The facts

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 fax 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 finally replied, he said that he had been arrested while counting the steps in front of the president's palace. The police had told him that he was not allowed to park his car there. As he had no place to stay, he decided to spend the night in the station. He counted the steps again, and then the height of the wall. When he got home, he sent the editor the facts as he had promised.

报刊杂志的编辑常常为了向读者提供一些无关紧要的事实和统计数字而走向极端。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。稿子寄来后，编辑看了第一句话就拒绝予以发表。文章的开头是这样的：“几百级台阶通向环绕总统府的高墙。”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。

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，在此期间，编辑等得不耐烦了，因为杂志马上要付印。他给记者先后发去两份传真，但对方毫无反应。于是他又发了一份传真，通知那位记者说，若再不迅速答复，将被解雇。记者终于答复了，他说他在数总统府前的台阶时被捕了。警察告诉他，他不可以把车停在那里。由于无处可住，他决定在车站过夜。他又数了一遍台阶，然后再量了一下围墙的高度。回家后，他就按他答应的那样把事实发送给了编辑。