The facts(L5)

Editors of newspapers and magazines often go to extremes to provide their readers with unimportant facts and statistics.
报纸和杂志的编辑总是为了将一些不重要的事实和数据提供给他们的读者而使他们走向极端。
PS: go to extremes, 走向极端

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.
去年一名记者就受一家知名杂志委托，写了一篇关于非洲某个新成立共和国总统官邸的文章。当稿子寄来后，编辑才看到第一句话，就拒绝刊登他。

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.
稿子以‘几百级台机通向环绕总统府的高墙’。这名编辑立即发给记者一封传真，要求他弄清楚台阶的确切数目，和墙的高度。
PS: lead to，通向、导致

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.
这名记者立刻出发去核实这些重要的事实，但是他花了很长时间才确认。同时，这名编辑等得不耐烦了，因为杂志马上就要刊印了。
PS：set out，出发

He sent the journalist two more faxes, but received no reply. He sent yet another fax informing the journalist that if he didn’t reply soon he would be fired.
他又发了两封传真给记者，但是都没有回音。于是，他又发了一封传真，通知记者如果不迅速恢复的话，记者会被炒掉。

When the journalist again failed to reply, the editor reluctantly published the article as it had originally been written.
当记者再次毫无回信后，编辑强行发布了原稿。
PS：as it had originally been written, 按照它原来被写成的样子，意译为按照原稿。

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.
一周后，编辑最终收到了记者发来的传真。这个可怜的人不仅被警察逮捕，而且还被投入了监狱。
PS：Not only, but (also)… 不仅…,而且…
PS++: 否定意义的副词做句首，句子完全倒装。

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 1084 steps leading to the fifteen-foot wall which surrounded the president’s palace.
而他最终还是获准传回一封传真，在传真中他通知编辑，他在数通向十五英尺高的总统府高墙的1084级台阶时，被抓了起来。