RichardBurton probably knew nothing of the small South African town of Cullinan whenhe bought yet another chunky diamond for Elizabeth Taylor in 1969. Now theCullinan mine itself, like so many of the diamonds unearthed there, is about tochange hands. On November 22nd De Beers, the diamond giant that has owned themine since 1930, said it was selling it to a consortium led by Petra Diamonds,one of South Africa’s emerging diamond producers, for 1 billion rand in cash. Providedregulators approve the deal, the transfer should take place by the middle ofnext year.

De Beers isselling because the mine is no longer profitable, despite attempts to turn itaround. But Petra reckons the mine still has another 20 years of production init and plans to extract at least 1m carats a year. The unexploited"Centenary Cut" deposit, which lies under the existing mine, couldyield a lot more. This is good news for the mine’s 1,000 or so employees and forthe town, which has depended on the diamond business since Sir Thomas Cullinandiscovered a prospect there in 1898 that contained kimberlite, a rock that canbe rich in diamonds. The mine, established in 1903, is one of 30 or sokimberlite diamond mines in the world, and is believed to be still the world’s second-most-valuable diamondresource

Petra is arelatively small outfit, listed on London’s Alternative Investment Market,that specialises in buying mines that bigger companies see as marginal. Itstrick is to extract better returns by rationalising production and processing,and keeping operating costs and overheads down. Petra has already bought two ofDe Beers’s loss-making South African mines-both of which are now profitable-and isfinalising the 78.5m rand acquisition of the group’s underground operation in Kimberley,which stopped working in 2005.

It alreadyoperates four mines in South Africa and has promising exploration in Angola (ajoint-venture with BHP Billiton), Sierra Leone and Botswana. Petra expects toproduce over 1m carats by 2010-quite a jump from 180,474 carats in the year toJune. The company has yet to make a profit, but expects to be making money bythe middle of next year.

In the 1990sDe Beers decided that it was no longer a good idea to try to monopolise thediamond market. It started focusing on higher returns rather than market share,and has been revamping its mine portfolio, selling off mines that are no longerprofitable and investing in more enticing operations, such as its mine off thewest coast of South Africa, its Voorspoed operation in the Free State province,and two new mines in Canada.

This hasopened the way for a new class of diamond firm that operates in the vast middleground between the world’s handful of large producers and a multitude of much smaller explorationfirms. The Cullinan deal should entrench Petra in this middle tier, alongsidefirms such as Kimberley Diamond and Trans Hex. But even if it does reach itstarget of 1m carats a year, Petra will still not be able to match the sparkleof the giants. Last year De Beers produced 51m carats from its mines inBotswana, Namibia, South Africa and Tanzania, which amounted to 40% of theworld’s diamonds by value.

1. TheCullinan mine was named after_____.

[A] theoriginal name of the town

[B] the nameof its first owner

[C] the nameof its discoverer

[D] the nameof the town’s first colonist

2. Whichone of the following statements is TRUE of the Cullinan mine?

[A] The mineis the only business of the town which employs most of the local residents

[B] It can bemined for another 20 years given Petra’s advanced technology

[C] It is theworld’s second largest diamond mine with a yearly capacity of 1m carats

[D] Whetherthe mine will maintain its profitability is yet to know.

3. Petra’s opearting philosophy can be said as _____.

[A] to makeprofits by reducing the costs

[B] toexploit the surrounding areas of an existing mine

[C] tointegrate the resources of all the money-losing small mines

[D] torestructure the mine portfolio and to optimize the process management

4. De Beershas made changes on its development stratege because_____.

[A] it plansto shrink its market share and ends its long-term monopoly

[B] it wantsto open the way for the middle tier of diamond market

[C] itswitches its attention to making larger profits

[D] it wantsto turn around the loss-making mines by cooperating with companies of smallersize.

5. Thefuture of the new class of diamond firm is _____.

[A] promising

[B] dim

[C] unknown

[D]frustrating

文章剖析：

文章从Petra公司收购矿产为契因，介绍了钻石矿业新兴的一个中间阶层。第一段讲述了Cullinan矿将要转手的消息;第二段介绍了De Beers公司之所以将矿转手的原因;第三段、第四段介绍Petra公司的一些经营方式和情况;第五段讲述De Beers公司的运营调整;第六段介绍了钻石矿业的新阶层。

词汇注释：

chunky adj. 含小而厚的块：

consortium n.财团

kimberlite n.金伯利岩

entrench v. 确立，使处于牢固地位

portfolio n. 组合

enticing adj.引诱的, 迷人的, 动人心目的

难句突破：

(1) This is good news for the mine’s 1,000 or so employees and for the town, which has depended on thediamond business since Sir Thomas Cullinan discovered a prospect there in 1898that contained kimberlite, a rock that can be rich in diamonds.

[主体句式] This is good news for ...

[结构分析] 这是一个简单句，for后面的宾语比较复杂，which 引导的非限定性定语从句修饰the town，在该从句中有一个since引导的状语从句;在该状语从句中，that 引导的定语从句修饰prospect, a rock...是kimberlite的同位语。

[句子译文] 这对于这个矿的1000名左右的雇工以及这个小镇来说是个好消息，这个小镇从1898年Thomas Cullinan爵士发现该矿含有金伯利岩(可能富含钻石的一种岩石)后，就一直依赖钻石生意存活。

(2) Itstarted focusing on higher returns rather than market share, and has beenrevamping its mine portfolio, selling off mines that are no longer profitableand investing in more enticing operations, such as its mine off the west coastof South Africa, its Voorspoed operation in the Free State province, and twonew mines in Canada.

[主体句式]It started focusing on..., andhas been...

[结构分析] 这是一个并列句，由连词and 连接，后半分句结构比较复杂;has been 后面带有三个并列的成分，第二个成分selling off mines后面有that 引导的定语从句，第三个成分中such as 后面都是用来修饰operations的。

[句子译文] 它开始修关心更高的回报率而不是市场份额了，也一直在修改它的矿产组合，卖掉不再盈利的矿产，投资更让人动心的项目，如南非西海岸的矿产、自由州省的Voorspoed项目、加拿大的两处新矿。

题目分析：

1. TheCulliman mine in deal was named after_____.1. 正在交易的矿是以_____命名的。

[A] theoriginal name of the town[A]小镇原来的名字

[B] the nameof its first owner[B] 第一个矿主的名字

[C] the nameof its discoverer[C] 矿场发现者的名字

[D] the nameof the town’s first colonist[D] 小镇第一个殖民者的名字

[答案] C

[难度系数] ☆☆

[分析] 细节题。该矿的名字为Culliman, 从第一段可以看到它所在的小镇的名字也是这个，但是第二段提到1898年Thomas Cullinan爵士发现了这个矿含有金伯利岩，1903年该矿成立。那么可以推断，这个镇和矿的名字都是以Cullinan爵士、即其第一个发现者的名字命名的。因此，正确答案为C。

2. Which oneof the following statements is TRUE of the Cullinan mine?2.关于Cullinan矿，以下的陈述哪个是正确的?

[A] The mineis the only business of the town which employs most of the local residents[A] 该矿山是小镇大多数人工作的地方。

[B] It can bemined for another 20 years given Petra’s advanced technology[B] 有了Petra的先进技术，该矿山还可以被挖掘20年。

[C] It is theworld’s second largest diamond mine with a yearly capacity of 1m carats[C] 它是世界上第二大钻石矿山，年产钻石100万克拉。

[D] Whetherthe mine will maintain its profitability is yet to know.[D] 该矿山是否还会保持盈利还是一个未知数。

[答案]D

[难度系数] ☆☆☆☆

[分析] 细节题。文章第二段之处小镇上的大部分人都依赖于钻石产业，但这并不意味着他们都在矿山工作，因此A选项错误。文章第三段谈到Petra的盈利策略主要是改进流程、降低成本，并没有强调使用先进的技术。选项C，在第二段提到Cullinan目前仍被认为是世界第二大最有价值的钻石矿，但并不一定在规模上也是第二大的，而且年产量1百万克拉指的不是该矿山的年产量，而是Petra公司的计划年产量。选项D，文章没有明确指出该矿山将来究竟是否会赢利，因为不得而知，答案D为正确的陈述。

3. Petra’s opearting philosophy can be saidas _____.3. Petra 的运营理念可以说是_____。

[A] to makebetter profits by reducing the costs[A] 通过削减成本来取得更好的收益

[B] toexploit the surrounding areas of an existing mine[B] 从已经存在的矿山周围寻找资源

[C] tointegrate the resources of all the money-losing small mines[C] 整合那些亏损的小矿山的资源

[D] torestructure the mine portfolio and to optimize the process management[D] 调整矿产组合并且优化流程管理

[答案]A

[难度系数] ☆☆☆☆

[分析]推理题。文章第三段提到Petra专门收购大公司边缘化的矿产，其秘诀就在于通过合理化生产和加工，降低运作和管理费用来获得更好的收益。可以看出，公司运营理念就是通过自己的努力，比如合理化生产、加工，降低费用来盈利，因此，选项A最为符合这一点。

4. De Beershas made changes on its development stratege because_____.4. De Beers 改变了自己的发展战略因为_____。

[A] it plansto shrink its market share and ends its long-term monopoly[A] 它计划缩小其市场份额并中止长期的垄断

[B] it wantsto open the way for the middle tier of diamond market[B] 它希望可以为钻石市场的中间阶层开辟道路

[C] itswitches its attention to making larger profits[C] 它的注意力转移到如何谋取更大的利润

[D] it wantsto turn around the loss-making mines by cooperating with companies of smallersize[D] 它想要通过与小规模公司的合作来扭转那些亏损的矿产

[答案]C

[难度系数] ☆☆☆

[分析] 推理题。文章第五段提到De Beers 认为试图垄断市场已经不是什么很好的策略了，它开始关心更高的利润而不是市场份额了，还采取了一系列的措施来实现这个策略。因此，它改变了自己的发展策略，主要是想要谋取更大的利润，B为正确答案。A是公司改变策略的方式，B不符合原文内容。D选项具有一定的迷惑性，但要注意De Beers知识将一些矿山卖给小公司，这并不意味着它与小公司合作，因此该选项错误。

5. The futureof the new class of diamond firm is _____.5. 钻石业新阶层的未来会是_____。

[A]promising[A] 有前景的

[B] dim[B] 暗淡

[C]unknown[C] 未知的

[D]frustrating[D] 困难重重的

[答案]C

[难度系数] ☆

[分析]推理题。关于钻石业新出现的中间阶层，文章只是介绍了其刚刚开始发展的情况，但是未来怎么样文章并没有给出明确的看法，因此，答案为C，其余三个选项的态度显然不符合题意。