Fiat's agony spreads to workers as 8,100 jobs go
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比較近幾年的虧損情況；第三段說明菲亞特公司裁員對當?shù)氐挠绊�；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人手中。
詞匯注釋
morose: [mE5rEJs] adj. 壞脾氣的；憂郁的
slump: [slQmp] n. (物價)暴跌, 跌落
belated: [bI5leItId] adj. 來得太遲的
recapitalisation: 重新投資
patriarch：[5peitrB:k] n. 家長, 族長, 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：這是一個復(fù)雜句。主語后面帶有一個不定式短語作定于，過去分詞chosen所帶的短語作了boss的定語，后面還有一個which引導(dǎo)的非限定性定語從句。
句子譯文：菲亞特遲遲不愿采取強硬措施使產(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，屬事實細節(jié)題。根據(jù)文章第一段第提到，工廠老板將和工會領(lǐng)導(dǎo)就裁員的問題進行會晤，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)人只是暫時被解雇，但工人們懷疑工作是否還會回來。可見，令他們悲觀的是自己將被解雇。
2. 答案為A，屬事實細節(jié)題。文章第二段提到菲亞特汽車公司五年前生產(chǎn)260萬輛汽車仍然能夠盈利，而現(xiàn)在只生產(chǎn)190萬輛汽車但仍然面臨虧損的局面，可見菲亞特汽車的市場需求比以前下降很多。
3. 答案為B，屬事實細節(jié)題。根據(jù)文章第三段，菲亞特裁員將會使地方失業(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，屬事實細節(jié)題。文中談到菲亞特汽車公司的問題時，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。防止股價下跌是新任總裁制定的目標。這和措施不能混為一談。
5. 答案為A，屬推理判斷題。根據(jù)文章比較后一段，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)分析人士認為菲亞特公司比較終將落入美國人的手里，也就是說菲亞特的問題已經(jīng)不是自己能夠獨立解決的了。
參考譯文
位于都靈的米拉菲奧里（Mirafiori）大工廠是菲亞特集團下屬菲亞特汽車公司的核心部門，該公司比較近麻煩不斷。10月9日下午2點早班工人下班回家的時候，悲觀的情緒籠罩著人們。工人們知道工廠老板將于當天下午晚些時候在羅馬會見工會領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人，宣布集團所有工廠范圍內(nèi)裁員8100人。這是繼今年早些時候宣布裁員3000人之后的又一次裁員。工人們預(yù)計到明年七月，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被解雇一年。但悶悶不樂的工人們在走出米拉菲奧里工廠大門時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），這把集團其它部門的利潤全部抵銷了，這些部門制造的東西從卡車，拖拉機到機器人應(yīng)有盡有。菲亞特的老板們多年來一直否認公司產(chǎn)能嚴重過剩，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)260萬輛汽車，年利潤達到7.58億歐元。從那以后，除了一年業(yè)績稍好，其它幾年是年年虧損。今年該公司計劃只生產(chǎn)190萬輛汽車。五月菲亞特公司迫于銀行壓力進行了結(jié)構(gòu)調(diào)整，短短幾星期后，菲亞特集團母公司的首席執(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。工會說供應(yīng)商的減少可能會使失業(yè)人數(shù)增加一倍。當?shù)毓俜浇y(tǒng)計的失業(yè)率已經(jīng)達到了18%（雖然這個數(shù)字忽略了活躍的“非正式”經(jīng)濟）。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，成為集團新任總裁，這種狀況才有所改變。他肩負拯救這家由阿格里尼家族控股30%的公司的重任。他的目標就是恢復(fù)公司信用，阻止公司股價大幅下跌，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。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，體弱多病的喬萬尼·阿格里尼反對這筆交易，大多數(shù)分析家認為意大利人比較引以為傲的制造公司將比較終落入美國人的手中。
