考研英語(yǔ)閱讀理解精讀100篇【經(jīng)濟(jì)類】

Unit 8
The giant Mirafiori plant in Turin is the heart of Fiat Auto, the troubled car division of the

Fiat group. As the early shift trooped home at 2pm on October 9th, the mood was pessimistic.

The workers knew that the bosses were meeting union leaders later that afternoon in Rome to

announce 8,100 job cuts across the group's car factories. This is on top of 3,000 job losses

announced earlier this year. Workers expect one-third of Mirafiori's 12,000 employees to be

gone by next July. Fiat says that all but 500 of the total are temporary lay-offs, to last

about a year. But the morose workers passing through Mirafiori's gates doubt that the jobs

will ever come back, whatever the firm says about new models and future investment.

Fiat Auto will lose around �1 billion ($987m) this year, wiping out profits in other parts of

the group, which makes everything from lorries and tractors to robots. Fiat's bosses have been

in denial for years about the company's massive over-capacity, the cause of growing losses as

sales slumped. Five years ago Fiat Auto made 2.6m cars a year and profits of �758m. Since then

it has recorded a loss in every year bar one. This year it will produce barely 1.9m cars. Its

banks forced a restructuring in May, and the chief executive of its Fiat group parent had to

resign a few weeks later.

The pain is bad enough in northern Italy, where unemployment is barely 4%, but it will be felt

more elsewhere. The Termini Imerese plant in Sicily is to lay off 1,800 workers. Unions say

that cuts among suppliers could double the number of people hit. The local official jobless

rate is already 18% (though this ignores a lively "informal" economy). This is posing a nasty

problem for the government of Silvio Berlusconi, which polled strongly in Sicily but is not

inclined to aid troubled firms.

Fiat's belated willingness to take tough steps to align capacity with demand is down to the

group's new boss, Gabriele Galateri, chosen in June to rescue the firm, which is 30% owned by

Agnelli family interests. His aim is to restore credibility, arrest the alarming plunge in the

company's share price and persuade the banks that he is sorting out the Fiat Auto mess, so as

to win their support for a further recapitalisation.

Closely watching this Italian drama are bosses of General Motors, owners of 20% of Fiat Auto.

The Italians have an option to sell the remaining shares to GM from January 2004. GM, which

has its own problems in Europe, is desperate for Fiat Auto to sort itself out before it can be

forced to take over. Although the Agnelli family patriarch, the ailing 81-year-old Gianni

Agnelli, is opposed to such a sale, most analysts expect that Italy's proudest manufacturing

company will end up in American hands.

注（1）：本文選自Economist；10/12/2002, p59-59, 3/5p, 1c；

注（2）：本文習(xí)題命題模仿1999年真題text 4第3題（1），2004年真題text 4第2題（2），2002年真題

text 5第3題（3）和text 3第4題（5），和1998年真題text 2第4題（4）；

1.       The workers in Fiat’s plant were pessimistic because_________.

[A] the car division of the Fiat group was in trouble

[B] new models and future investment promised no hope of getting their jobs back

[C] there will be heavy job losses in the giant Mirafiori plant

[D] they were facing the threat of losing their jobs

2.       We learn from the second paragraph that___________.

[A] the market demand for Fiat cars now is far lower than it was five years ago

[B] Fiat Auto is the only part of the group that is running at a loss

[C] Fiat Auto is selling cars more than they can produce

[D] the cause of Fiat’s trouble is the sluggish Italian economy

3.       According to the text, Fiat’s job cuts _____________.

[A] trigger a wave of job cuts in other companies

[B] become a headache of Italian government

[C] double the number of jobless people in northern Italy

[D] force Italian government to aid it

4.       Which of the following is NOT a measure Fiat Auto took to combat growing losses?

[A] Preventing share price from falling

[B] Laying off workers

[C] Reducing production

[D] Replacement of the boss

5.       We can draw a conclusion from the last paragraph that___________.

[A] Fiat Auto can hardly solve its own problems

[B] GE will be happy to buy the remaining shares of Fiat Auto

[C] the Agnelli family has a final say to whether Fiat Auto should be sold out

[D] Americans are better at running car campanies

答案：D A B A A

篇章剖析

本文是一篇說明文，介紹了菲亞特公司因業(yè)績(jī)不佳而不得不裁員的情況。文章第一段介紹了菲亞特公司大規(guī)

模裁員的情況；第二段介紹了菲亞特公司最近幾年的虧損情況；第三段說明菲亞特公司裁員對(duì)當(dāng)?shù)氐挠绊懀?/P>

第四段介紹了菲亞特公司所采取的措施；第五段做出結(jié)論：菲亞特公司極有可能落入美國(guó)人手中。

詞匯注釋

morose: [mE5rEJs] adj. 壞脾氣的；憂郁的

slump: [slQmp] n.  (物價(jià))暴跌, 跌落

belated: [bI5leItId] adj. 來得太遲的

recapitalisation: 重新投資

patriarch：[5peitrB:k] n. 家長(zhǎng), 族長(zhǎng), 創(chuàng)辦人

ailing: [5eIlIN] adj. 生病的

難句突破

Fiat's belated willingness to take tough steps to align capacity with demand is down to the

group's new boss, Gabriele Galateri, chosen in June to rescue the firm, which is 30% owned by

Agnelli family interests.

主體句式：Fiat’s belated willingness ..is down to the group’s new boss.

結(jié)構(gòu)分析：這是一個(gè)復(fù)雜句。主語(yǔ)后面帶有一個(gè)不定式短語(yǔ)作定于，過去分詞chosen所帶的短語(yǔ)作了boss的

定語(yǔ)，后面還有一個(gè)which引導(dǎo)的非限定性定語(yǔ)從句。

句子譯文：菲亞特遲遲不愿采取強(qiáng)硬措施使產(chǎn)需一致，直到六月份加布里埃萊·加拉泰雷臨危受命，成為集

團(tuán)新任總裁，這種狀況才有所改變。

題目分析

1. 答案為D，屬事實(shí)細(xì)節(jié)題。根據(jù)文章第一段第提到，工廠老板將和工會(huì)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)就裁員的問題進(jìn)行會(huì)晤，并宣

布大批裁員，這是一年之內(nèi)的第二次大規(guī)模裁員。雖然公司許諾大多數(shù)人只是暫時(shí)被解雇，但工人們懷疑工

作是否還會(huì)回來�？梢�，令他們悲觀的是自己將被解雇。

2. 答案為A，屬事實(shí)細(xì)節(jié)題。文章第二段提到菲亞特汽車公司五年前生產(chǎn)260萬(wàn)輛汽車仍然能夠盈利，而現(xiàn)

在只生產(chǎn)190萬(wàn)輛汽車但仍然面臨虧損的局面，可見菲亞特汽車的市場(chǎng)需求比以前下降很多。

3. 答案為B，屬事實(shí)細(xì)節(jié)題。根據(jù)文章第三段，菲亞特裁員將會(huì)使地方失業(yè)率上升，讓不想援助困難公司的

貝盧斯科尼政府犯難（pose a nasty problem）�？梢姺苼喬夭脝T成了令意大利政府頭痛的事情。

4. 答案為A，屬事實(shí)細(xì)節(jié)題。文中談到菲亞特汽車公司的問題時(shí)，也談到了相應(yīng)的措施（盡管沒有直接說明

），比如裁員，換總裁，減少產(chǎn)量等。防止股價(jià)下跌是新任總裁制定的目標(biāo)。這和措施不能混為一談。

5. 答案為A，屬推理判斷題。根據(jù)文章最后一段，GE希望菲亞特自己把問題解決好，免得由GE接管。然而大

多數(shù)分析人士認(rèn)為菲亞特公司最終將落入美國(guó)人的手里，也就是說菲亞特的問題已經(jīng)不是自己能夠獨(dú)立解決

的了。

參考譯文

位于都靈的米拉菲奧里（Mirafiori）大工廠是菲亞特集團(tuán)下屬菲亞特汽車公司的核心部門，該公司最近麻

煩不斷。10月9日下午2點(diǎn)早班工人下班回家的時(shí)候，悲觀的情緒籠罩著人們。工人們知道工廠老板將于當(dāng)天

下午晚些時(shí)候在羅馬會(huì)見工會(huì)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人，宣布集團(tuán)所有工廠范圍內(nèi)裁員8100人。這是繼今年早些時(shí)候宣布裁員

3000人之后的又一次裁員。工人們預(yù)計(jì)到明年七月，米拉菲奧里工廠的12000名員工中將有三分之一的人丟

掉工作。菲亞特說除了500人外，所有其他人都只是暫時(shí)被解雇一年。但悶悶不樂的工人們?cè)谧叱雒桌�菲奧

里工廠大門時(shí)懷疑不論公司把新車型和未來的投資說得如何天花亂墜，工作也不會(huì)回來了。

菲亞特汽車公司今年將虧損近10億歐元（合9.87億美元），這把集團(tuán)其它部門的利潤(rùn)全部抵銷了，這些部門

制造的東西從卡車，拖拉機(jī)到機(jī)器人應(yīng)有盡有。菲亞特的老板們多年來一直否認(rèn)公司產(chǎn)能嚴(yán)重過剩，而這正

是銷售額下降，損失不斷上升的原因。五年前菲亞特汽車公司每年生產(chǎn)260萬(wàn)輛汽車，年利潤(rùn)達(dá)到7.58億歐

元。從那以后，除了一年業(yè)績(jī)稍好，其它幾年是年年虧損。今年該公司計(jì)劃只生產(chǎn)190萬(wàn)輛汽車。五月菲亞

特公司迫于銀行壓力進(jìn)行了結(jié)構(gòu)調(diào)整，短短幾星期后，菲亞特集團(tuán)母公司的首席執(zhí)行官就辭去了職務(wù)。

意大利北部的失業(yè)率雖然只有4%，但這對(duì)該地區(qū)仍然是一次重創(chuàng)。不過其它地方遭受的打擊更為嚴(yán)重。位于

西西里的泰爾米尼-伊梅雷塞工廠將要裁員1800人。工會(huì)說供應(yīng)商的減少可能會(huì)使失業(yè)人數(shù)增加一倍。當(dāng)?shù)?/P>

官方統(tǒng)計(jì)的失業(yè)率已經(jīng)達(dá)到了18%（雖然這個(gè)數(shù)字忽略了活躍的“非正式”經(jīng)濟(jì)）。這給西爾維奧·貝盧斯

科尼政府出了一道難題，他的政府雖然在西西里獲得的民意支持很高，但并不打算幫助那些陷入困境的公司

。

菲亞特遲遲不愿采取強(qiáng)硬措施使產(chǎn)需一致，直到六月份加布里埃萊·加拉泰雷臨危受命，成為集團(tuán)新任總裁

，這種狀況才有所改變。他肩負(fù)拯救這家由阿格里尼家族控股30%的公司的重任。他的目標(biāo)就是恢復(fù)公司信

用，阻止公司股價(jià)大幅下跌，讓銀行相信他正在梳理菲亞特汽車公司的這堆亂麻，以便贏得他們的支持，給

公司繼續(xù)投資。

通用汽車公司的老板們正密切關(guān)注著意大利的局勢(shì)。該公司持有菲亞特汽車公司20%的股份。從2004年一月

起，意大利人就可以把剩余股份賣給通用公司。而通用公司在歐洲的麻煩已經(jīng)不少，在萬(wàn)不得已接管之前，

它巴不得菲亞特汽車公司能夠自己把問題解決好。雖然阿格里尼家族的首領(lǐng)，81歲高齡，體弱多病的喬萬(wàn)尼

·阿格里尼反對(duì)這筆交易，大多數(shù)分析家認(rèn)為意大利人最引以為傲的制造公司將最終落入美國(guó)人的手中。

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