新概念第三册第五课笔记

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 st 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 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 fox 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 fox 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.

Today we’ll learn the story about a journalist who was asked to provide some statistics.now please listen to the story ,then let’s learn the new words:

Now learn the new words

(1).editor n. 编辑

(2).extreme n. 极端

(3).statistics n.统计数字

(4).journalist n. 新闻记者

(5).president n. 总统

(6).palace n .王宫，宏伟的住宅

(7).publish n.出版

(8).fax n.传真

(9).impatient adj.不耐烦的

(10).fire v.解雇

(11).originally adv.起初，原先

After learning the new words.Now try to answer the question,and do the ask and answer.

1.How long ago was this?(Last year )

2.Why was the editor dissatisfied with the first sentence?(Because it was too general)

3.Did he refuse to publish it?(Yes,he did)

4.Why was the editor getting impatient?(Because the magazine would soon go to press)

5.How many more faxes did he send the journalist?(Three)

6.What did the last one say?(That the journalist would be fried if he didn’t reply)

7.How long was it before the journalist could fax the editor?(A week)

8.How many steps led to the wall surrounding the president’s palace?(1.084)

9.How high was the wall?(Fifteen feet)

10.When had the journalist been arrested?(When he was counting the steps