考研英語閱讀理解精讀100篇：Unit 5

Unit 5

No one can accuse Howard Schultz of inaction since he returned as chief executive of Starbucks, the firm he built into a multinational only to watch it stumble under his successor. Barely a month has gone by over the past year without the firm announcing some new initiative or other. The latest came on February 17th in New York, when Mr Schultz unveiled Via, an instant coffee which, he claims, tastes just as good as Java brewed in the shop by one of the firm’s baristas.

Mr Schultz hopes to win a share of the $17 billion or so the world spends on instant coffee—a product which, he sniffs, has not improved in decades. Starbucks itself has spent 20 years pursuing the holy grail of an instant coffee that tastes as good as the fresh stuff. Don Valencia, the firm’s first head of research and development, who created the blended and frozen frappuccino drinks that earn Starbucks $2 billion a year, could never find a way to scale up an instant formula he had developed at home. When Mr Schultz returned as chief executive, he noticed that there had been some technological advances, allowing finer grinding, for example. So he asked the R&D team to repeat the recently deceased Valencia’s experiments, and found that “we had broken the code”. The name Via is a hat-tip to Valencia—though during development it was known as Jaws (just add water, stir).

Starbucks says it has patents that should prevent competitors from quickly replicating Via, which will go on sale in some American stores next month. The opportunity may, however, be biggest in other countries: in Britain over 80% of coffee sold is instant, compared with just 10% in America.

Assuming Starbucks drinkers decide that Via tastes good, the company will have to get the price right. At first, it will come in packets of 12 or 3 individual servings, for 83 and 98 cents a cup respectively. That is much more than other instants, but much less than a cup of coffee at one of Starbucks’ stores. The risk is that the firm’s existing customers may abandon counter service and start making their own cup of instant. That would encourage them to visit Starbucks less often, a trend that is already gathering pace with the recession. For the first time in Starbucks’ history, same-store sales have fallen.

Mr Schultz has had to accelerate the store-closure programme that he had started in order to correct the over-expansion which prompted his return to the helm. To keep customers coming to remaining outlets, he might experiment with discounts such as cheap “combination meals” of a drink and food. He also wants a visit to a Starbucks shop to be a “uniquely uplifting experience”. Improving the smell in stores by changing the cheese used in breakfast sandwiches was a start. But ensuring that staff are enthusiastic will be especially difficult when jobs are disappearing. Mr Schultz remains hostile to unions, but has decided to maintain the firm’s popular health benefits, while cutting his own pay.

Will all this be enough? So far, investors seem sceptical: Starbucks’ share price remains barely a quarter of its all-time high in 2006.

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2006年真題Text 1第1題，第3題模仿2015年真題Text 1第2題，第4、5題模仿2007年真題Text 2第1、5題。

1. The reason why the author maintains that Howard Schultz should not be blamed of inaction is most probably because ______.

A) he would not allow his successor to destroy Starbucks

B) Starbucks spent the entire last year developing the new instant coffee

C) the new instant coffee is of the same quality as that brewed in the shop

D) he launched the new instant coffee after his return

2. The word “hat-tip” （Line 8, Paragraph 2） most probably means ______.

A) reward

B) achievement

C) surprise

D) tribute

3. The risk of launching the instant coffee Via is that______.

A) it can be quickly imitated by market competitors

B) customers may patronize Starbucks store less

C) it may fail to cater to customers’ taste

D) the high price will prohibit people from mass purchase

4. According to the text, which of the following was a common practice in Starbucks before?

A) Starbucks hired baristas to guarantee the quality of the coffee brewed.

B) Starbucks was a major player in the market of instant coffee.

C) Starbucks provided “combination meals” with fair discounts.

D) In Starbucks, employees had a high pressure of losing job.

5. The author’s attitude towards Schultz’s new measures seems to be ______.

A) biased

B) critical

C) objective

D) pessimistic

篇章剖析

本篇文章主要介紹星巴克創(chuàng)始人霍華德·舒爾茨重返公司擔(dān)任首席執(zhí)行官，通過推出一款速溶咖啡產(chǎn)品以及采取其他一系列措施，意圖重振公司雄風(fēng)。第一段開宗明義，指出舒爾茨一回到工作崗位就積極行動，推出一款速溶咖啡；第二段詳細介紹了這款速溶咖啡研發(fā)以及命名的過程；第三、四段從正反兩方面分析了這款咖啡的市場前景；第五段介紹了舒爾茨采取的其他措施；最后一段則指出，投資者們對這一系列新舉措的效果持不太樂觀的態(tài)度。

詞匯注釋

inaction /?n??k?n/ n. 無作為，無行動，不采取措施

multinational /?m?lti?n??n?l/ n. 跨國公司

stumble /?st?mbl/ v. 絆腳；蹣跚而行

brew /bru?/ v. 煮（咖啡）；泡（茶）

barista /b??r?st?/ n. 咖啡師

sniff /sn?f/ v. 嗤之以鼻

grail /gre?l/ n. 努力追求的理想目標(biāo)

grind /gra?nd/ v. 磨碎，碾碎；把…磨成粉

decease /d??si?s/ v. 死亡，亡故

serving /?s??v??/ n. （食物或飲料的）一份

helm /helm/ n. 舵；掌管

hostile /?h?sta?l/ adj. 懷有敵意的，不友善的

難句突破

Don Valencia, the firm’s first head of research and development, who created the blended and frozen frappuccino drinks that earn Starbucks $2 billion a year, could never find a way to scale up an instant formula he had developed at home.

主體句式：Don Valencia...could never find a way to...

結(jié)構(gòu)分析：本句是一個復(fù)合句，主句為Don Valencia could never find a way to scale up an instant formula。句中的the firm’s first head of research and development為主語的同位語，用來補充說明主語Don Valencia的身份。同位語后面是一個由who引導(dǎo)的定語從句，用來修飾主語；此定語從句中又包含了一個定語從句that earn Starbucks $2 billion a year，用來修飾the blended and frozen frappuccino drinks。句末的he had developed at home是一個省略了關(guān)系代詞which/that的定語從句，用來修飾an instant formula。

句子譯文：星巴克公司研發(fā)部的首席研發(fā)負責(zé)人唐·巴倫西亞曾研發(fā)出了混合冷凍的星冰樂咖啡，這款咖啡每年為星巴克賺得20億美元。他在家中研發(fā)出一個速溶咖啡配方，卻一直無法找到將其規(guī)?；a(chǎn)的方法。

題目分析

1. D 細節(jié)題。第一段開門見山地指出人們不應(yīng)該指責(zé)舒爾茨無所作為，并在接下來的兩句話里說明了原因。在星巴克陷入困境的情況下，舒爾茨重返公司并推出了一款速溶咖啡，行動非常迅速，因此D正確。A的內(nèi)容文章中沒有明確提到。B的內(nèi)容錯誤，文章第二段介紹了新產(chǎn)品的研發(fā)過程，第二句話提到了星巴克耗時20年研發(fā)頂級速溶咖啡。C是一個細節(jié)信息，是舒爾茨對新產(chǎn)品的評價，但并不符合題意。

2. D 語義題。這款速溶咖啡的名稱Via是由研發(fā)人的名字Valencia的首字母和末尾兩個字母組成的，同時結(jié)合上一句中“recently deceased Valencia”（剛剛過世的巴倫西亞），可以推出這樣命名是為了向Valencia致敬。選項D中tribute意為“（尤指對死者的）致敬”，因此該選項是正確答案。A選項reward意為“獎勵”；B選項achievement意為“成果”；C選項surprise意為“驚喜”，均不符合句意。

3. B 細節(jié)題。文章第四段討論了星巴克推出速溶咖啡的風(fēng)險，其中第三句明確提出the risk是指“公司現(xiàn)有的顧客可能會放棄柜臺服務(wù)，轉(zhuǎn)而自己沖泡速溶咖啡。這將使他們?nèi)バ前涂碎T店消費的次數(shù)減少”，B選項中“patronize”這個詞的意思是“光顧”，即使不知道這個詞的意思也可以通過排除法得出正確答案。文章第三段提到，星巴克申請了專利，以防止競爭者迅速仿制，因此A不正確。文中未明確表示消費者是否喜歡這種速溶咖啡的口味，只是assume（假設(shè)）消費者認(rèn)為好喝，因此C不正確。第四段雖然也提到了這款速溶咖啡價格較同類產(chǎn)品更貴，但由于其價格低于在門店消費的價格，也無法說這就是其風(fēng)險，因此D不正確。

4. A 推理題。這題要求推斷選項中哪個是星巴克以前的做法，可以通過排除法找到正確答案。文章提到星巴克第一次推出速溶咖啡，因此該公司以前并不涉足這塊市場，可以排除B。第五段指出舒爾茨的新舉措包括了各種打折優(yōu)惠，這說明星巴克以前并不這么做，可以排除C。第五段也指出由于舒爾茨目前正加快關(guān)閉部分門店，以糾正過去過度的擴張，因此員工們面臨失去工作的壓力，這并不是星巴克的長期做法，因此D也可以排除。從文章第一段最后一句話可以看出，由咖啡師做出香醇的咖啡是星巴克的傳統(tǒng)做法和特色。

5. C 情感態(tài)度題。本文大部分內(nèi)容都在談?wù)撌鏍柎闹胤敌前涂酥蟛扇〉母鞣N新措施。在文章最后一段，作者指出投資者們對這些措施抱著懷疑的態(tài)度。但這是作者對投資者態(tài)度的客觀陳述，并不代表作者自己的觀點。

參考譯文

沒有任何人可以指責(zé)重返星巴克擔(dān)任首席執(zhí)行官的霍華德·舒爾茨無所作為，星巴克曾在他的經(jīng)營管理下被締造成跨國集團，然而卻在他的繼任者手中變得舉步維艱。過去的一年里，星巴克沒有推出什么新舉措，而今年剛剛過了一個月，舒爾茨便于2月17日在紐約推出新的產(chǎn)品——一款速溶咖啡Via。舒爾茨聲稱，Via的味道與星巴克咖啡師在店里調(diào)配的Java咖啡一樣香醇。

舒爾茨先生希望在全球約170億美元的速溶咖啡市場上攻下一席之地。他對速溶咖啡這種產(chǎn)品在過去的幾十年里一點兒都沒改進嗤之以鼻。星巴克耗時20年，一直在鍥而不舍地研發(fā)頂級的速溶咖啡，使其味道與新磨的咖啡一樣好。星巴克公司研發(fā)部的首席研發(fā)負責(zé)人唐·巴倫西亞曾研發(fā)出了混合冷凍的星冰樂咖啡，這款咖啡每年為星巴克賺得20億美元。他在家中研發(fā)出一個速溶咖啡配方，卻一直無法找到將其規(guī)?；a(chǎn)的方法。當(dāng)舒爾茨先生重返星巴克擔(dān)任首席執(zhí)行官時，他注意到公司在技術(shù)上有了一些進步，例如更精細的研磨技術(shù)。因此，他要求研發(fā)團隊重做不久前逝世的巴倫西亞的實驗，結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)“我們終于破譯了密碼”。他把這款速溶咖啡命名為Via，以向巴倫西亞（Valencia）致敬，雖然在開發(fā)過程中該產(chǎn)品被稱為Jaws，是英文just add water, stir（只需加水，攪拌）的縮寫。

星巴克表示已經(jīng)為Via申請了專利，以防止競爭者迅速仿制。Via將于下個月在美國的一些星巴克店開始出售。不過，其他國家的市場機會可能最大：英國80％以上的在售咖啡是速溶的，相比之下，美國速溶咖啡只占10％。

假設(shè)星巴克的顧客認(rèn)為Via好喝，公司還必須為該產(chǎn)品制定合理的價格。首先，它會分為12袋或3袋裝，分別為83美分和98美分一杯。這個價格比其他速溶咖啡貴很多，但卻遠遠低于在任何一家星巴克門店的花費。其市場的風(fēng)險在于，公司現(xiàn)有的顧客可能會放棄柜臺服務(wù)，轉(zhuǎn)而自己沖泡速溶咖啡。這將使他們?nèi)バ前涂碎T店消費的次數(shù)減少，而經(jīng)濟危機以來光顧星巴克的客人已經(jīng)在不斷減少。這是在星巴克歷史上首次同店銷售額下降。

舒爾茨先生已經(jīng)不得不加快實施他提出的關(guān)店計劃，以糾正過度的擴張，這也是促使他重返星巴克掌舵的原因。對于剩下的店鋪，為了保持客源，他可能會嘗試打折優(yōu)惠，如超值的飲料和食物的“組合套餐”。他還希望顧客來星巴克時能獲得一種“獨特的、令人振奮的體驗”。更換三明治早餐里的奶酪以改善店里的味道，這就是一個開始。然而當(dāng)工作崗位不斷減少時，要確保員工的工作熱情就變得尤其困難。雖然舒爾茨先生仍然反對工會，但他決定保持該公司員工的醫(yī)療福利，同時降低自己的工資。

所有這些舉措夠嗎？迄今為止，投資者似乎一直持懷疑態(tài)度：星巴克目前的股價仍然只是2006年最高價位的四分之一。