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）：本文选自Economist；

注（2）：本文习题命题模仿对象：第1题模仿2006年真题Text 1第4题，第2题模仿2014年真题Text 3第4题，第3题模仿2013年真题Text 1第3题，第4题模仿2014年真题Text 2第2题，第5题模仿2013年真题Text 2第5题。



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


本篇文章介绍了巴西白糖业的发展现状，重点放在该国最大的白糖生产集团Cosan公司。第一、二段总体介绍了白糖业的生产现状以及企业活动；第三至五段具体介绍Cosan公司及其现任掌门人梅洛先生的状况，尤其强调了公司内部的斗争、股权政策调整等问题；最后一段进行了总结，指出巴西白糖业的前景是十分乐观的。





词汇注释


futures /ˈfjuːtʃə(r)z/ n. 期货

spike /spaɪk/ n. （价格、音量等）突然飙升，激增，猛涨

crunch /krʌntʃ/ n. 财政困难，货币紧缺，信贷严重不足

bolster /ˈbəʊlstə/ v. 支撑，加固

spectrum /ˈspektrəm/ n. 范围，幅度

ethanol /ˈeθənɒl/ n. 乙醇

forthright /fɔːθˈraɪt/ adj. 直率的；直截了当的

fuss /fʌs/ n. 异议，抱怨

outsize /ˈaʊtsaɪz/ adj. 较大的，超出一般的





难句突破


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.

主体句式：he strengthened his grip...

结构分析：本句的主干为he strengthened his grip...，其后的a company with a dual share structure作句子宾语Cosan Limited的同位语。其后又带有一个由that引导的定语从句，来修饰先行词share structure。

句子译文：2007年，他通过成立Cosan有限公司进一步加强了个人势力，这家公司采用双重股权模式，规定梅洛先生持有的一些股票的权重是普通股的十倍。





题目分析


1. C 细节题。文章第一段提及“The price spike is mainly explained by unfavourable weather”，接着又具体说明了印度降雨太少，而巴西降雨太多。因此，白糖期货价格激增是由全球降雨量分布不均导致的。

2. A 细节题。文章第三段最后两句话讨论了Cosan公司与其他公司的相似点“就像巴西的许多大公司一样，Cosan公司的股本结构包括家族股份和国有股份——来自巴西国有开发银行BNDES的持股。同时也像巴西其他大公司一样，该公司的家族成员们也为了公司的管理权而争得你死我活。”虽然有国有资本的参与，但该公司并不属于国有，因此A不正确。

3. D 语义题。feud这个词的意思是“部落或家属间的世仇”，即使不知道这个意思也可以根据上下文来猜测：文章第四段紧接着就说梅洛先生跟家族成员打了十年官司才赢得对公司的管理权，可见家族矛盾非常大，彼此之间因为经济利益而充满敌意，因此D正确。

4. B 细节题。根据文章第五段，公司管理的纷争使企业失去了凝聚力，因此这是一个最大的问题，故B正确。A表述符合文章内容，但是这并不是一个问题，梅洛先生转而将Cosan有限公司在纽约上市，而且这一做法并不违法，D也不正确。C属于无中生有，在文章中没有体现。

5. D 情感态度题。作者在最后一段中指出，乙醇销量增长极快，同时种植商协会也认为欧美国家将最终降低对巴西乙醇的进口关税，这些都大大有利于巴西白糖业的发展。可见作者对于巴西白糖业的未来是持乐观态度的。





参考译文


自今年年初以来，白糖的期货价格几乎翻了一倍，这对于巴西这个世界上最大的白糖生产国来说无疑是一个好消息。白糖价格飙升主要与今年天气不利有关——印度的降雨过少，巴西则降雨过多。与去年相比，印度的白糖产量几乎下降了一半，这使该国从世界第二大白糖生产国转变为最大的白糖进口国。这对于巴西的大型白糖生产公司来说是一个绝佳时机：尽管白糖业向来抵制公司合并，但信贷紧缩仍然引发了合并潮。而渡过了这一难关并生存下来的公司，不仅规模变得更大，同时也持有了大量现金。

法国商品生产巨头路易斯·德赖弗斯于四月份收购了一家大型甘蔗加工厂Santelisa Vale。Santelisa Vale由于扩张过快而负债累累，这是在巴西信贷紧缩发生前，任何企业在某一行业中达到最高投资水平时的通病。德赖弗斯早前就与巴西开展了白糖、大豆和其他农产品的贸易往来，希望能够巩固其地位。另一种做法的典型代表是由圣保罗州的许多小型农场联合组建的一家大型合作社Copersucar。

而规模最大的要数Cosan，该公司生产的白糖占到了全世界白糖产量的2.5%。去年，该公司收购了埃克森·美孚公司在巴西的分销和零售业务，以更好地销售乙醇。今年Cosan又收购了一家规模更小的制糖公司Nova America。就像巴西的许多大公司一样，Cosan公司的股本结构包括家族股份和国有股份——来自巴西国有开发银行BNDES的持股。同时也像巴西其他大公司一样，该公司的家族成员们也为了公司的管理权而争得你死我活。

鲁宾斯·奥米特·西尔弗伊亚·梅洛与他的家族成员们在巴西法庭上斗了十年才赢得了对Cosan的控制权。2007年，他通过成立Cosan有限公司进一步加强了个人势力，这家公司采用双重股权模式，规定梅洛先生持有的一些股票的权重是普通股的十倍。为了实现这一目的，他让Cosan有限公司在纽约证券交易所上市，因为当时Cosan公司所在的巴西圣保罗股票交易所不允许这样的安排。

梅洛先生为人非常坦率，他并未让持续不断的争论过度烦扰他。在一次关于政府能源政策的讨论中，他对下一届总统的热门候选人之一迪尔玛·鲁塞夫说：“你在跟烂泥巴生气，但你却不知道你脚下是什么。”Cosan的一位管理人员马科·卢茨认为，关于公司管理的小纷争只是花边新闻。他强调说，这家公司有专业化的管理，但梅洛先生想对公司的战略持有绝对的话语权，这对股东们来说并不足为奇。

另一个快速成长的糖业公司ETH Bioenergia的路易斯·佩雷拉·德阿劳约说，市场对于乙醇的需求量在过去的一年中增长了17%，比糖的增长要快得多。并且，多亏灵活燃料型汽车的销量上涨，这类汽车既可用汽油也可用乙醇驱动，这一增长仍将持续。不仅如此，巴西的糖甘蔗种植商协会乐观地认为欧美国家将最终降低对巴西乙醇的进口关税，如果这种情况发生，那么巴西的种植商、压榨商及蒸馏商将更加喜上眉梢。





Unit 4


Most economists hate gold. Not, you understand, that they would turn up their noses at a bar or two. But they find the reverence in which many hold the metal almost irrational. That it was used as money for millennia is irrelevant: it isn’t any more. Modern money takes the form of paper or, more often, electronic data. To economists, gold is now just another commodity.

So why is its price soaring? Over the past week, this has topped $450 a troy ounce, up by 9% since the beginning of the year and 77% since April 2001. Ah, comes the reply, gold transactions are denominated in dollars, and the rise in the price simply reflects the dollar’s fall in terms of other currencies, especially the euro, against which it hit a new low this week. Expressed in euros, the gold price has moved much less. However, there is no iron link, as it were, between the value of the dollar and the value of gold. A rising price of gold, like that of anything else, can reflect an increase in demand as well as a depreciation of its unit of account.

This is where gold bulls come in. The fall in the dollar is important, but mainly because as a store of value the dollar stinks. With a few longish rallies, the greenback has been on a downward trend since it came off the gold standard in 1971. Now it is suffering one of its sharper declines. At the margin, extra demand has come from those who think dollars—indeed any money backed by nothing more than promises to keep inflation low—a decidedly risky investment, mainly because America, with the world’s reserve currency, has been able to create and borrow so many of them. The least painful way of repaying those dollars is to make them worth less.

The striking exception to this extra demand comes from central banks, which would like to sell some of the gold they already have. As a legacy of the days when their currencies were backed by the metal, central banks still hold one-fifth of the world’s gold. Last month the Bank of France said it would sell 500 tonnes in coming years. But big sales by central banks can cause the price to plunge—as when the Bank of England sold 395 tonnes between 1999 and 2002. The result was an agreement between central banks to co-ordinate and limit future sales.

If the price of gold marches higher, this agreement will presumably be ripped up, although a dollar crisis might make central banks think twice about switching into paper money. Will the overhang of central-bank gold drag the price down again? Not necessarily. As James Grant, gold bug and publisher of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, a newsletter, points out, in recent years the huge glut of government debt has not stopped a sharp rise in its price.

注（1）：本文选自Economist；

注（2）：本文习题命题模仿对象：第1题模仿2015年真题Text 1第2题，第2、3题分别模仿2015年真题Text 4第3、2题，第4、5题分别模仿2013年真题Text 1第3题和2006年真题Text 1第3题。



1. In economists’ eyes, gold is something ______.

A) they look down upon

B) that can be exchanged in the market

C) worth people’s reverence

D) that should be replaced by other forms of money

2. According to the author, one of the reasons for the rising of gold price is ______.

A) the increasing demand for gold

B) the depreciation of the euro

C) the link between the dollar and gold

D) the increment of the value of the dollar

3. We can infer from the third Paragraph that ______.

A) the decline of the dollar is inevitable

B) America benefits from the depreciation of the dollar

C) the depreciation of the dollar is good news to other currencies

D) investment in the dollar yields more returns than that in gold

4. The phrase “ripped up” (Line 1, Paragraph 5) most probably means ______.

A) strengthened

B) broadened

C) renegotiated

D) torn up

5. According to the passage, the rise of gold price ______.

A) will not last long

B) will attract some central banks to sell gold

C) will impel central banks to switch into paper money

D) will lead to a dollar crisis





篇章剖析


本篇文章采用了提出问题——分析问题的模式，分析了金价上涨、美元下跌的经济态势。第一段说明黄金是一种商品；第二段分析了金价上涨的原因：金价的上涨反映了需求的增加以及计价单位的贬值；第三段分析了美元下跌的原因；第四段分析了各国央行的反应；最后一段对金价继续上扬可能带来的影响进行了分析。





词汇注释


reverence /ˈrevərəns/ n. 崇敬，尊敬

millennia /mɪˈlenɪə/ n. （millennium的复数）一千年

soaring /ˈsɔːrɪŋ/ adj. 剧增的，猛增的

troy ounce 金衡制

denominate /dɪˈnɒmɪneɪt/ v. 以…面值发行，以某种给定的货币单位发行或表达

euro /ˈjʊərəʊ/ n. 欧元

depreciation /dɪˌpriːʃiˈeɪʃn/ n. 跌价；贬值

bull /bʊl/ n. 买空；（做）多头

stink /stɪŋk/ v. 发出臭味

longish /ˈlɒŋɪʃ/ adj. 相当长的

rally /ˈræli/ n. （行情、价格等）跌后复升

greenback /ˈɡrɪːnbæk/ n. 美钞

tonne /tʌn/ n. 公吨（=1,000公斤或称 metric ton）

rip up 撕毁；取消

overhang /ˌəʊvəˈhæŋ/ n. 突出量





难句突破


At the margin, extra demand has come from those who think dollars—indeed any money backed by nothing more than promises to keep inflation low—a decidedly risky investment, mainly because America, with the world’s reserve currency, has been able to create and borrow so many of them.

主体句式：Extra demand has come because...

结构分析：本句是一个复杂句，from这个介词所引导的状语中包含一个who引导的定语从句，一个插入语，主句之后是一个because引导的原因状语从句。nothing more than的意思是“只不过，仅仅”。

句子译文：美元贬值的额外需求来自于那些认为美元——实际上是任何一种依靠抑制通胀的许诺来支撑的货币——无疑是一种高风险投资的人，主要因为美国拥有美元这一世界储备货币，而且一直能够制造和借来很多美元。





题目分析


1. B 细节题。文章第一段提到经济学家不喜欢黄金的原因是人们对黄金缺乏理性的崇拜。在他们看来，黄金只不过是一种商品，也就是可以在市场上交换的东西。

2. A 细节题。文章第二段分析了金价上涨的两个主要原因：金价用美元表示，而美元相对于其他货币贬值了；市场对黄金需求的增加。

3. B 推理题。根据文章第三段，美国因为拥有美元这一世界储备货币，而且一直能够制造和借来很多美元。要偿还这些美元，最不费力的方式就是让美元贬值。可见，从这个角度来看，美元贬值对美国是有益的事情。

4. D 语义题。根据文章第四段，为了防止出现一国央行大量抛售黄金导致金价下跌的情况，各国央行达成协议，协调和限制今后的黄金销售。如果金价持续上涨，很可能一些央行会再次抛售黄金（文中提到法国央行出售黄金的决定），那样各国央行之间的协议就会被破坏。因此，根据上下文，“ripped up”最有可能的意思就是“torn up”（撕毁）。

5. B 细节题。根据文章第四段，在许多买家大量买入黄金的同时，许多央行却打算将他们囤积的黄金出售。文章第五段说，如果金价继续上扬，各国央行之间用于协调和限制未来黄金销售的协议将会被打破，也就是说金价的上涨会吸引各国央行出售黄金。





参考译文


大多数经济学家都讨厌黄金。要知道，这可不是因为他们瞧不起一两块金条，而是因为他们发现许多人对这种金属的崇拜几乎到了毫无理性的地步。它被用作千禧年的货币是另外一回事：何况那已经是明日黄花了。现代货币采用的是纸币的形式，或者更多时候直接采用电子数据的形式。对经济学家来说，黄金现在只是另外一种商品。

那么为什么金价会大幅上涨呢？在过去一周里，每金衡（1金衡约31.1025克）的价格达到了450美元，比年初上涨了9%，而比2001年4月则上涨了77%。啊，答案揭晓了，黄金交易是以美元来计数的，价格的上涨只是反映了美元对其他货币比价的下跌，尤其是对欧元的比价，本周美元对欧元的比价再创新低。用欧元计数的话，金价的波动要小得多。然而，美元价值和黄金价值之间似乎并没有固定联系。像其他任何东西的价格一样，金价的上涨可以反映需求的增加以及计价单位的贬值。

因此就出现了黄金买空。美元的下跌之所以重要，主要是因为作为一种保值手段美钞可谓臭名昭著。自从1971年脱离金本位，美元就一直处于跌势，其间只有为数不多的几次为期稍长的跌后复升。这一次跌幅更大。美元贬值的额外需求来自于那些认为美元——实际上是任何一种依靠抑制通胀的许诺来支撑的货币——无疑是一种高风险投资的人，主要因为美国拥有美元这一世界储备货币，而且一直能够制造和借来很多美元。要偿还这些美元，最不费力的方式就是让美元贬值。

各国中央银行的反应跟这种额外需求正好形成鲜明对照。这些银行都想把手里的黄金卖掉一些。以前各国货币都依靠这种金属，历史承袭的结果就是各国中央银行的黄金储量是世界黄金总量的五分之一。上个月，法国中央银行宣布即将在未来几年出售500吨黄金。不过中央银行大量出售黄金会导致金价猛跌——1999年至2002年之间英格兰银行出售395吨黄金时就发生过这种情况。其结果是各国央行达成协议，协调限制今后的销售。

如果金价继续上扬，这个协议就会被破坏，虽然一场美元危机会让各国央行在转向纸币经营问题上慎之又慎。那么央行所储备的大量黄金是否会将金价再次拉下来呢？那倒不一定。正如时事通讯《格兰特利率观察家》的出版人兼黄金迷詹姆斯·格兰特所指出的，最近几年政府的巨额债务并未阻止金价的大幅上涨。