考研英語閱讀理解精讀100篇：Unit 9

Unit 9

Whatever else, Airbus cannot be accused of failing to put on a brave face at this week’s Paris Air Show, held every two years. Louis Gallois is the troubled European airframe-maker’s third chief executive within 12 months. But still he declared: “I can tell you with full confidence that Airbus is back and fully back.” Supporting his confident public message was an extraordinary flow of orders and commitments for over 600 aircraft accumulated in time for the show by the firm’s super-salesman, John Leahy.

Although it is heading for a second successive loss—last year it plunged € 572m ($718m) into the red—Airbus is undoubtedly in better shape than it was 12 months ago when wiring problems delayed the A380 and the weak dollar exposed the firm’s bloated cost base. It has begun the “Power8” recovery plan, intended to save € 2 billion annually by cutting 10,000 jobs and auctioning off six factories to partners. And the giant A380 will begin commercial service with Singapore Airlines in the autumn, although being two years late.

In the contest between the twin-engined wide-body Boeing 787 and the A350 XWB, Mr Gallois struggles to be as positive. The 787 is already a sales phenomenon, with over 630 firm orders even before the plane’s roll-out next month. The airlines are excited by its revolutionary use of a composite material called carbon-reinforced plastic（CRP）. Five years behind the 787, which will enter service next year, the A350 contains a similar share of composite material, but is based on a less advanced structural design that involves hanging CRP panels on a titanium frame. Boeing acknowledges that the A350 may be as light as the 787, but argues that it will be a less pleasant plane to fly in and a more difficult one to maintain.

Mr Gallois admits that following Boeing’s approach would have been too expensive and risky for Airbus. At the same time Mr Gallois bemoaned the advantage his rival has in government-supported research and development. Boeing, he claims, receives about $800m a year—ten times as much as Airbus. Earlier in the week, during meetings with ministers representing the four Airbus partners（France, Germany, Britain and Spain）, he asked them to fund half the company’s planned € 600m-a-year investment in research and technology. He is not hopeful.

But for the moment what matters most for Airbus is that the market stays strong and that it gets to grips with its costs. This may require going further in imitating Boeing’s risk-sharing partner（RSP） model than Airbus seems willing to contemplate. According to some estimates, about 80% of the work on the 787 is outsourced to RSPs, saving Boeing both precious development time and working capital.

What this week has shown is that for all the success of the 787 and the mistakes of Airbus, the competitive duopoly of the past decade is still firmly in place. But will things stay that way? That depends partly on whether Airbus really has learnt its lessons and partly on who else wants to get into the game. Boeing reckons that in 20 years, 36% of the market will be in the Asia-Pacific region. For the time being, the Chinese, the Indians and others are happy to be partners and customers. But that could change.

注（1）：本文選自Economist；

注（2）：本文習(xí)題命題模仿對象為2004年真題Text 3。

1. How can Louis Gallois be confident that Airbus is “fully back”?

A) Because under his leadership there is a sign that the company will soon stop losing money.

B) Because Airbus put on a good show in Paris in which it received a large number of orders.

C) Because Airbus launches its recovery plan that would surely bring a great amount of profit.

D) Because the company is in better situation as it succeeded in slowing down the annual loss.

2. How does Boeing feel about the coming A350 by Airbus?

A) Critical.

B) Indifferent.

C) Optimistic.

D) Supportive.

3. According to Mr Gallois, how can Airbus catch up with Boeing?

A) By mastering advanced technology that can compete with or excel Boeing.

B) By receiving more financial and other kinds of support from the partner governments.

C) By adopting the RSP model so as to cut costs and improve the efficiency of its working process.

D) By reducing cost through its recovery plan and relevant policies.

4. What is Boeing’s strategy of cutting cost?

A) It outsources a large portion of work to its partners.

B) It invests in technology research and development.

C) It receives much support from the government.

D) It expands production by looking for more orders.

5. By “But will things stay that way?” （Line 2, Paragraph 6）, the author means _______.

A) Airbus might make more mistakes

B) the markets in Asia-Pacific region might shrink

C) the competitive duopoly by Boeing and Airbus might change

D) Chinese and Indians might become the two companies’ strong competitors

篇章剖析

本文是一篇說明文，主要講述了歐洲空中客車公司在和美國波音公司的競爭中遇到的麻煩和困難。第一段通過巴黎航空展和空客首席執(zhí)行官的態(tài)度來引出話題；第二段描述了空中客車現(xiàn)在面臨的具體困境；第三段說明空客在和波音公司之間的競爭中處于下風(fēng)；第四、五段簡要分析了空客不敵波音的一些原因；第六段總結(jié)說明了兩家公司仍然處于競爭壟斷市場的狀態(tài)。

詞匯注釋

successive /s?k?ses?v/ adj. 繼承的，連續(xù)的

plunge /pl?nd?/ vi. 投入，跳進(jìn)，陷入

bloat /bl??t/ v. （使）膨脹，腫起

auction /???k?n/ vt. 拍賣

roll-out /?r???a?t/ n. 出場，推出

composite /?k?mp?z?t/ adj. 合成的，復(fù)合的

titanium /t??te?ni?m/ n. 【化】鈦

bemoan /b??m??n/ vt. 哀嘆

outsource /?a?t?s??s/ v. 外包

duopoly /dj????p?li/ n. 兩家賣主壟斷市場（的局面）

難句突破

Five years behind the 787, which will enter service next year, the A350 contains a similar share of composite material, but is based on a less advanced structural design that involves hanging CRP panels on a titanium frame.

主體句式：The A350 contains a similar share of composite material.

結(jié)構(gòu)分析：本句開頭的短語“Five years behind the 787”是用來形容A350的，“which will enter service next year”作為定語從句修飾“the 787”，增加了句子的難度。后面的but引導(dǎo)一個(gè)轉(zhuǎn)折句，句中包含了一個(gè)由that引導(dǎo)的定語從句，來修飾design。

句子譯文：比明年投入使用的波音787晚五年的A350擁有一種類似的合成材料，但是這種材料所基于的技術(shù)不如波音787先進(jìn)，即A350把CRP板掛在鈦框架上。

題目分析

1. D 細(xì)節(jié)題。文章第二段第一句話說明空中客車公司該年的年度虧損小于去年，公司的狀況開始變好，因此D選項(xiàng)正確。A選項(xiàng)的錯(cuò)誤原因是，并沒有跡象顯示公司將會(huì)停止虧損。B選項(xiàng)的錯(cuò)誤原因在于，盡管文章第一段指出空客在巴黎航空展上表現(xiàn)不錯(cuò)，但是訂單的增加并不是從航空展上得到的。C選項(xiàng)的錯(cuò)誤原因是文中第二段提到的公司恢復(fù)計(jì)劃能夠節(jié)約成本，并沒有提到會(huì)帶來很大利潤。

2. A 情感態(tài)度題。文章第三段最后一句指出，波音公司認(rèn)為A350可能跟波音787一樣輕，但是卻不如波音787舒適，而且前者比后者更難維修，這說明波音公司并不看好空客即將推出的A350，或者說，波音公司是帶著吹毛求疵的態(tài)度看待A350機(jī)型的性能，認(rèn)為其不僅不夠完美，而且不及波音787的各項(xiàng)優(yōu)點(diǎn)。

3. B 細(xì)節(jié)題。文章第四段中，加洛瓦感嘆波音公司每年從政府得到的研發(fā)支持和資金是空客的10倍，充足的政府支持是波音能夠一直保持行業(yè)領(lǐng)先地位的重要因素。因此加洛瓦希望與空客合作的四個(gè)國家的政府也能夠增加對空客的投資，從而以增強(qiáng)其競爭力。

4. A 細(xì)節(jié)題。本題的關(guān)鍵是波音公司如何降低成本，而文章第五段介紹了波音公司通過RSP模式將許多工作外包給合作伙伴，從而節(jié)約了工作資金，降低了成本，因此答案為A。B和C選項(xiàng)都是波音保持強(qiáng)勁發(fā)展勢頭的原因，但不是降低成本的原因。

5. C 語義題。在“But will things stay that way?”這句話之前，文章表明這兩家公司仍然處于競爭壟斷市場的狀態(tài)，后文又繼續(xù)說明了有可能導(dǎo)致這種局面有所變化的一些因素。這句話處在中間的銜接位置，說明作者認(rèn)為這種狀況不一定能夠長期持續(xù)下去。

參考譯文

無論如何，我們不能說空中客車在這周舉辦的兩年一度的巴黎航空展表現(xiàn)不佳。路易·加洛瓦是這個(gè)遇到麻煩的歐洲飛機(jī)制造商12個(gè)月內(nèi)的第三任首席執(zhí)行官。但是他仍然聲稱：“我可以充滿信心地告訴你們，空中客車回來了，完全地回來了?！彼园l(fā)表如此充滿信心的講話，是因?yàn)樵摴镜某変N售員約翰·雷義在航展前及時(shí)地拉到了600多架飛機(jī)的大規(guī)模訂單和合同承諾。

盡管空中客車今年會(huì)連續(xù)第二年虧損——去年該公司的赤字為5.72億歐元（折合7.18億美元）——空中客車毫無疑問比12個(gè)月前的情況好得多，那個(gè)時(shí)候由于配線問題導(dǎo)致了A380延遲推出，同時(shí)疲軟的美元突顯了公司的高成本問題。現(xiàn)在公司實(shí)施了“Power8”恢復(fù)計(jì)劃，目的在于通過裁員1萬人、并把6個(gè)工廠拍賣給合作伙伴等措施，從而每年節(jié)約20億歐元。新加坡航空公司將在今年秋天首先把巨型的A380用于商業(yè)服務(wù)，這比原計(jì)劃推遲了兩年。

在空客A350 XWB和雙引擎寬體的波音787的競爭中，加洛瓦先生力圖保持積極的姿態(tài)。波音787銷售已經(jīng)十分成功，該機(jī)型在下個(gè)月正式出場之前就已經(jīng)收到了超過630架的訂單。這款機(jī)型革命性地使用了一種叫做碳增強(qiáng)塑料（CRP）的合成材料，這使得航空公司都非常振奮。比明年投入使用的波音787晚五年的A350擁有一種類似的合成材料，但是這種材料所基于的技術(shù)不如波音787先進(jìn)，即A350把CRP板掛在鈦框架上。波音承認(rèn)A350有可能和787一樣輕，但同時(shí)指出坐在A350上可能不是非常舒適，且這款機(jī)型比較難維修。

加洛瓦先生承認(rèn)緊跟波音的步子對空客來說成本昂貴且風(fēng)險(xiǎn)很大。同時(shí)，加洛瓦先生也感嘆其對手擁有政府的研發(fā)支持優(yōu)勢。他聲稱波音每年得到的資金為8億美元，這是空客的10倍。本周早先時(shí)候，在與空客的四家合作者（法國、德國、英國和西班牙）的部長會(huì)談中，他要求后者為公司每年提供6億歐元的資金用于技術(shù)研發(fā)。但是希望并不大。

目前對于空中客車來說，最重要的是市場保持強(qiáng)勁，而且公司要處理其成本的問題。這可能要求空客進(jìn)一步去模仿波音的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)分擔(dān)伙伴（RSP）模式，盡管這也許超出了空客的預(yù)期。根據(jù)一些預(yù)測數(shù)據(jù)，波音787約80%的工作外包給了RSP，這給波音節(jié)約了寶貴的研發(fā)時(shí)間和工作資金。

本周的一系列事件告訴我們，盡管波音787取得了巨大的成功而空客犯下了一些錯(cuò)誤，但這兩家競爭公司的壟斷地位在過去十年里依舊巋然不動(dòng)。可是這種情況會(huì)一直持續(xù)下去嗎？這一部分取決于空客是否真的吸取了教訓(xùn)，一部分取決于是否還有別的公司愿意加入這場游戲。波音估計(jì)在20年后，36%的市場在亞太地區(qū)。目前，中國人、印度人等都非常愿意成為它們的合作伙伴和客戶。但是這種局面也是會(huì)改變的。