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.

1.  go to extremes 走极端

2. provide sb with sth. 比如 provide citizens with conveniences 方便市民生活

3. 斜体加粗的这句话，我觉得把整个空间感形容的很到位，这也是英语语言的风格和艺术，学习一下

4. fax 传真，一些办公用品的单词有： fax machine 传真机  stapler 订书机 folder 文件夹  scotch tape 透明胶带   paperclips 回形针

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 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.

1.set out to do sth 开始去做， set out 还有“出发、启程”的意思，比如The band are setting out on a European tour in March.乐队将于3月份出发去欧洲巡回演出。

2.press 印刷出版。press也可以泛指新闻、舆论，比如 Freedom of the press 新闻自由 ，可以和news、report联系在一起记忆。press比较常见的意思是“推、压”的这类意思，press on 表示 坚持继续做下去的意思。

3.reluctant 勉强的，不情愿的

4.not only but also，不仅…而且还…，这里把also换成了as wel，其实都可以省略的。not only 在句首并且连接两个分句是，前一句倒装强调，比如本句中顺序其实是“man had been arrested”

5.arrest 被捕。介绍一些犯罪、监狱的用词：break the law/commits a crime 犯罪 ；given a prison sentence 被判刑； serve prison terms 服刑 ；combat crime 打击犯罪；catch criminals 抓捕罪犯 ；a deterrent effect 威慑作用

6.最后这个句子挺长的，可以看到in which,that,while, which，把“发了传真，告诉编辑，他被捕，是在数围绕宫殿的楼梯数的时候”，可以闭上眼睛默读一遍，看看句子成分是不是正确和完整~

今天也依然更新了，只要我不睡，就还是今天~