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, 07/23/2007

   注（2）：本文習(xí)題命題模仿對(duì)象為2004年真題Text 3。

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

    [A] Because the company stops losing money.

    [B] Because Airbus put on a good show in Paris.

    [C] Because Airbus launches its recovery plan.

    [D] Because the company is in better situation.

   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 learning technology from Boeing.

    [B] By receiving more fund from the governments.

    [C] By adopting the RSP model.

    [D] By reducing cost.

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

    [A] It gives some work to its partners.

    [B] It invests on 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汽車公司在和美國(guó)波音公司的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)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；第三段則刻畫了空客在和波音公司之間的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)中處于下風(fēng)；第四、五段簡(jiǎn)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(jìng)爭(zhēng)壟斷市場(chǎng)的局面。

   詞匯注釋

   successive [sEk`sesiv] adj. 繼承的, 連續(xù)的   composite [`kRmpEzit] adj. 合成的, 復(fù)合的

   plunge [plQndV] vi. 投入, 跳進(jìn), 陷入       titanium [tai`teinjEm] n. [化]鈦

   bloat [blEut] vi. 膨脹, 腫起               bemoan [bi`mEun] vt. 哀嘆   

   auction [`R:kFEn] vt. 拍賣                 outsource [`aUt7sR:s] v. 外包

   roll-out n.出場(chǎng)、推出                   duopoly [dju`RpEli] n. 兩家賣主壟斷市場(chǎng)(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  本句是簡(jiǎn)單句。開頭的兩個(gè)短語(yǔ)“Five years behind the 787”和“which will enter service next year”都是用來形容A350的，放在前面增加了句子的難度。后面but引導(dǎo)一個(gè)轉(zhuǎn)折句，句中包含了一個(gè)定語(yǔ)從句，以that引導(dǎo)，來修飾design。

   句子譯文  將于明年開始服務(wù)的A350比波音787晚了五年，它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)，即把CRP板掛在鈦框架上。

   題目分析

   1．D. 推理題。

   2．A. 態(tài)度題。文章第三段比較后一句，波音公司指出A350不如波音787非常舒適，而且比后者更難操作，這說明波音公司并不看好空客即將推出的A350。

   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，因此加洛瓦要求空客的四個(gè)合作國(guó)家的政府也增加對(duì)空客的投資，以增強(qiáng)其競(jìng)爭(zhēng)力。

   4．A. 細(xì)節(jié)題。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。

   5．C. 推理題。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(jìng)爭(zhēng)壟斷市場(chǎng)的局面，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，說明了作者認(rèn)為對(duì)于這種狀況不一定能夠長(zhǎng)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)的第三個(gè)首席執(zhí)行官。但是他聲稱：“我可以充滿信心的告訴你們，空中客車回來了，完全地回來了�！彼�之所以發(fā)表如此充滿信心的講話，是因?yàn)樵摴�司的超�?jí)銷售員約翰·雷義在航展前及時(shí)地拉到了600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)疲軟的美元凸現(xiàn)了公司的高成本問題�，F(xiàn)在公司實(shí)施了“Power8”恢復(fù)計(jì)劃，目的在于通過每年裁員1萬人、并把6個(gè)工廠拍賣給合作伙伴等措施，從而節(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(jìng)爭(zhēng)中，加洛瓦先生力圖保持正面積極的態(tài)度。波音787已經(jīng)成為了一個(gè)銷售現(xiàn)象，該機(jī)型在正式出場(chǎng)之前的一個(gè)月就已經(jīng)收到了   超過630家公司的訂單。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感到振奮。將于明年開始服務(wù)的A350比波音787晚了五年，它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)型比較難操作。

    加洛瓦承認(rèn)緊跟波音的步子對(duì)空客來說成本昂貴且風(fēng)險(xiǎn)很大。同時(shí)，加洛瓦也感嘆其對(duì)手擁有政府的研發(fā)支持。他聲稱波音每年得到的資金為80億美元，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(guó)、德國(guó)、英國(guó)和西班牙）的部長(zhǎng)會(huì)談中，他要求后者為公司每年提供60億歐元的資金用于技術(shù)研發(fā)。但是希望并不大。

    目前對(duì)于空中客車來說，比較重要的是保持市場(chǎng)的強(qiáng)勁，而這關(guān)系到其成本的問題。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）模型，盡管這也許超出了空客預(yù)期的結(jié)果。根據(jù)一些預(yù)測(cè)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(jìng)爭(zhēng)公司的壟斷地位依舊巋然不動(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(chǎng)游戲。波音估計(jì)在20年后，36%的市場(chǎng)在亞太地區(qū)。目前，中國(guó)人、印度人等都非常愿意成為合作伙伴和客戶。但是這也是會(huì)改變的。