考研英語閱讀理解精讀100篇：Unit 3

Unit 3

Since the start of the year the price of sugar futures has almost doubled. This is welcome news for Brazil, the world’s largest producer of the stuff. The price spike is mainly explained by unfavourable weather—too little rain in India and too much in Brazil. India’s sugar production fell by almost half last year, turning the country from the second-biggest producer to the biggest importer. For Brazil’s big sugar companies the timing is perfect: the credit crunch set off a wave of consolidation in an industry that had been resistant to it. The firms that have survived now have more scale and lots of cash.

Louis Dreyfus, a French commodities giant, bought Santelisa Vale, a large processor of sugar cane, in April. Santelisa had expanded fast and taken on too much debt, a common mistake in an industry that had the highest levels of investment of any industry in Brazil before the crunch. Dreyfus, which already trades sugar, soya beans and other Brazilian agricultural goods, wanted to bolster its position. At the other end of the spectrum is Copersucar, a giant cooperative that unites lots of small growers in Sao Paulo state.

The biggest of the lot is Cosan, which alone produces 2.5% of the world’s sugar. Last year it bought Exon Mobil’s distribution and retailing business in Brazil to help it sell its ethanol. This year it bought Nova America, a smaller sugar company. Like many of Brazil’s big companies Cosan mixes family ownership with capital from BNDES, Brazil’s government-owned development bank. And like many other Brazilian giants, it has suffered a vicious feud within the founding family over who should run the business.

Rubens Ometto Silveira Mello fought the other members of his family for ten years in Brazil’s courts before winning control of Cosan. In 2007 he strengthened his grip by setting up Cosan Limited, a company with a dual share structure that accords some of Mr Mello’s shares ten times the voting weight of ordinary ones. To do this, he listed Cosan Limited on the New York Stock Exchange, since Brazil’s Novo Mercado, where Cosan was listed at the time, does not allow such arrangements.

Mr Mello, who is splendidly forthright, did not let the subsequent controversy bother him overly. “You’re pissing on sludge and you don’t know what’s under your feet,” he once told Dilma Rousseff, one of the front-runners for next year’s presidential election, during a discussion of the government’s energy policy. Marcos Lutz, an executive at Cosan, argues that the fuss about corporate governance is a distraction. The firm is professionally managed, he insists, and it was no surprise to shareholders that Mr Mello wanted to preserve an outsize say in the firm’s strategy.

The market for ethanol has been growing at 17% a year, much faster than that for sugar, points out Luiz Pereira de Araújo of ETH Bioenergia, another fast-growing sugar firm. Such growth is likely to persist, thanks to increased sales of flex-fuel cars, which can run on petrol or ethanol. What is more, the Brazilian sugar-cane growers’ association is optimistic that Europe and America will eventually reduce tariffs on Brazilian ethanol. If that happens, Brazil’s growers, crushers and distillers will be even happier than they are already.

注（1）：本文選自Economist；

注（2）：本文習(xí)題命題模仿對象：第1題模仿2006年真題Text 1第4題，第2題模仿2014年真題Text 3第4題，第3題模仿2013年真題Text 1第3題，第4題模仿2014年真題Text 2第2題，第5題模仿2013年真題Text 2第5題。

1. The main reason for the boom of sugar futures in Brazil is ______.

A) India’s withdrawal from the market

B) the credit crunch

C) the irregular global distribution of rain

D) the industrial consolidation

2. Which of the following is NOT a similarity between Cosan and other companies?

A) state-owned

B) family conflict

C) initially private ownership

D) including state capital

3. The word “feud” (Line 5, Paragraph 3) in the article most probably means ______.

A) relationship

B) fault

C) circle

D) hostility

4. Which of the following problems may exert the most negative influence on Cosan?

A) The dual share structure is not permitted by Brazil’s Novo Mercado.

B) The fight for an absolute control of the company.

C) The switch to ethanol falls short of strategic foresight.

D) The controversy concerning Cosan Limited’s listing in New York Stock Exchange.

5. Toward the prospect of Brazil’s sugar industry in the foreseeable future, the writer’s attitude can be said to be ______.

A) indifferent

B) doubtful

C) objective

D) optimistic

篇章剖析

本篇文章介紹了巴西白糖業(yè)的發(fā)展現(xiàn)狀，重點放在該國最大的白糖生產(chǎn)集團(tuán)Cosan公司。第一、二段總體介紹了白糖業(yè)的生產(chǎn)現(xiàn)狀以及企業(yè)活動；第三至五段具體介紹Cosan公司及其現(xiàn)任掌門人梅洛先生的狀況，尤其強(qiáng)調(diào)了公司內(nèi)部的斗爭、股權(quán)政策調(diào)整等問題；最后一段進(jìn)行了總結(jié)，指出巴西白糖業(yè)的前景是十分樂觀的。

詞匯注釋

futures /?fju?t??(r)z/ n. 期貨

spike /spa?k/ n. （價格、音量等）突然飆升，激增，猛漲

crunch /kr?nt?/ n. 財政困難，貨幣緊缺，信貸嚴(yán)重不足

bolster /?b??lst?/ v. 支撐，加固

spectrum /?spektr?m/ n. 范圍，幅度

ethanol /?eθ?n?l/ n. 乙醇

forthright /f??θ?ra?t/ adj. 直率的；直截了當(dāng)?shù)?

fuss /f?s/ n. 異議，抱怨

outsize /?a?tsa?z/ adj. 較大的，超出一般的

難句突破

In 2007 he strengthened his grip by setting up Cosan Limited, a company with a dual share structure that accords some of Mr Mello’s shares ten times the voting weight of ordinary ones.

主體句式：he strengthened his grip...

結(jié)構(gòu)分析：本句的主干為he strengthened his grip...，其后的a company with a dual share structure作句子賓語Cosan Limited的同位語。其后又帶有一個由that引導(dǎo)的定語從句，來修飾先行詞share structure。

句子譯文：2007年，他通過成立Cosan有限公司進(jìn)一步加強(qiáng)了個人勢力，這家公司采用雙重股權(quán)模式，規(guī)定梅洛先生持有的一些股票的權(quán)重是普通股的十倍。

題目分析

1. C 細(xì)節(jié)題。文章第一段提及“The price spike is mainly explained by unfavourable weather”，接著又具體說明了印度降雨太少，而巴西降雨太多。因此，白糖期貨價格激增是由全球降雨量分布不均導(dǎo)致的。

2. A 細(xì)節(jié)題。文章第三段最后兩句話討論了Cosan公司與其他公司的相似點“就像巴西的許多大公司一樣，Cosan公司的股本結(jié)構(gòu)包括家族股份和國有股份——來自巴西國有開發(fā)銀行BNDES的持股。同時也像巴西其他大公司一樣，該公司的家族成員們也為了公司的管理權(quán)而爭得你死我活?！彪m然有國有資本的參與，但該公司并不屬于國有，因此A不正確。

3. D 語義題。feud這個詞的意思是“部落或家屬間的世仇”，即使不知道這個意思也可以根據(jù)上下文來猜測：文章第四段緊接著就說梅洛先生跟家族成員打了十年官司才贏得對公司的管理權(quán)，可見家族矛盾非常大，彼此之間因為經(jīng)濟(jì)利益而充滿敵意，因此D正確。

4. B 細(xì)節(jié)題。根據(jù)文章第五段，公司管理的紛爭使企業(yè)失去了凝聚力，因此這是一個最大的問題，故B正確。A表述符合文章內(nèi)容，但是這并不是一個問題，梅洛先生轉(zhuǎn)而將Cosan有限公司在紐約上市，而且這一做法并不違法，D也不正確。C屬于無中生有，在文章中沒有體現(xiàn)。

5. D 情感態(tài)度題。作者在最后一段中指出，乙醇銷量增長極快，同時種植商協(xié)會也認(rèn)為歐美國家將最終降低對巴西乙醇的進(jìn)口關(guān)稅，這些都大大有利于巴西白糖業(yè)的發(fā)展。可見作者對于巴西白糖業(yè)的未來是持樂觀態(tài)度的。

參考譯文

自今年年初以來，白糖的期貨價格幾乎翻了一倍，這對于巴西這個世界上最大的白糖生產(chǎn)國來說無疑是一個好消息。白糖價格飆升主要與今年天氣不利有關(guān)——印度的降雨過少，巴西則降雨過多。與去年相比，印度的白糖產(chǎn)量幾乎下降了一半，這使該國從世界第二大白糖生產(chǎn)國轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)樽畲蟮陌滋沁M(jìn)口國。這對于巴西的大型白糖生產(chǎn)公司來說是一個絕佳時機(jī)：盡管白糖業(yè)向來抵制公司合并，但信貸緊縮仍然引發(fā)了合并潮。而渡過了這一難關(guān)并生存下來的公司，不僅規(guī)模變得更大，同時也持有了大量現(xiàn)金。

法國商品生產(chǎn)巨頭路易斯·德賴弗斯于四月份收購了一家大型甘蔗加工廠Santelisa Vale。Santelisa Vale由于擴(kuò)張過快而負(fù)債累累，這是在巴西信貸緊縮發(fā)生前，任何企業(yè)在某一行業(yè)中達(dá)到最高投資水平時的通病。德賴弗斯早前就與巴西開展了白糖、大豆和其他農(nóng)產(chǎn)品的貿(mào)易往來，希望能夠鞏固其地位。另一種做法的典型代表是由圣保羅州的許多小型農(nóng)場聯(lián)合組建的一家大型合作社Copersucar。

而規(guī)模最大的要數(shù)Cosan，該公司生產(chǎn)的白糖占到了全世界白糖產(chǎn)量的2.5%。去年，該公司收購了埃克森·美孚公司在巴西的分銷和零售業(yè)務(wù)，以更好地銷售乙醇。今年Cosan又收購了一家規(guī)模更小的制糖公司Nova America。就像巴西的許多大公司一樣，Cosan公司的股本結(jié)構(gòu)包括家族股份和國有股份——來自巴西國有開發(fā)銀行BNDES的持股。同時也像巴西其他大公司一樣，該公司的家族成員們也為了公司的管理權(quán)而爭得你死我活。

魯賓斯·奧米特·西爾弗伊亞·梅洛與他的家族成員們在巴西法庭上斗了十年才贏得了對Cosan的控制權(quán)。2007年，他通過成立Cosan有限公司進(jìn)一步加強(qiáng)了個人勢力，這家公司采用雙重股權(quán)模式，規(guī)定梅洛先生持有的一些股票的權(quán)重是普通股的十倍。為了實現(xiàn)這一目的，他讓Cosan有限公司在紐約證券交易所上市，因為當(dāng)時Cosan公司所在的巴西圣保羅股票交易所不允許這樣的安排。

梅洛先生為人非常坦率，他并未讓持續(xù)不斷的爭論過度煩擾他。在一次關(guān)于政府能源政策的討論中，他對下一屆總統(tǒng)的熱門候選人之一迪爾瑪·魯塞夫說：“你在跟爛泥巴生氣，但你卻不知道你腳下是什么。”Cosan的一位管理人員馬科·盧茨認(rèn)為，關(guān)于公司管理的小紛爭只是花邊新聞。他強(qiáng)調(diào)說，這家公司有專業(yè)化的管理，但梅洛先生想對公司的戰(zhàn)略持有絕對的話語權(quán)，這對股東們來說并不足為奇。

另一個快速成長的糖業(yè)公司ETH Bioenergia的路易斯·佩雷拉·德阿勞約說，市場對于乙醇的需求量在過去的一年中增長了17%，比糖的增長要快得多。并且，多虧靈活燃料型汽車的銷量上漲，這類汽車既可用汽油也可用乙醇驅(qū)動，這一增長仍將持續(xù)。不僅如此，巴西的糖甘蔗種植商協(xié)會樂觀地認(rèn)為歐美國家將最終降低對巴西乙醇的進(jìn)口關(guān)稅，如果這種情況發(fā)生，那么巴西的種植商、壓榨商及蒸餾商將更加喜上眉梢。