单选题 In more than a century of hand-to-hand combat in shops, supermarket aisles, restaurants and bars around the world, Coca-Cola has nearly always been in the lead and Pepsi in second place. When Warren Buffett, Coke's long-time investor, told the board that he had visited a pizza parlour in Omaha, Nebraska, with his grandson only to discover it served nothing but Pepsi, Coke's bosses acted swiftly to remove their arch-rival from the menu and replace it with Coke.
If only the Atlanta-based company had moved as determinedly in response to changing consumer tastes, it might have avoided a humiliating reversal in fortunes. On December 12th PepsiCo overtook Coca-Cola in market capitalisation for the first time. With PepsiCo's share price having risen by 14% this year, its stock market value reached $ 98.4 billion, compared with $ 97.9 billion for Coca-Co la, which has seen its shares decline by 1.2% in the same period.
Pepsi is powered not by its traditional fizzy drinks--sales of those are flat--but such products as Gatorade, a sports drink that has seen sales grow by more than 30%. Gatorade also represents a broader diversification by PepsiCo away from a reliance on sugary colas and into other products. PepsiCo now reportedly gets around 20% of its revenue from soft drinks, unlike Coca-Cola, where they account for some 80%.
Many of the brands that PepsiCo has been acquiring and promoting appeal to consumers' concerns a bout their health. PepsiCo's latest advertising programme promotes a new "Smart Spot" symbol, which al lows people to identify healthier products. The spots are being attached to Gatorade and other PepsiCo brands such as Tropicana orange juice, Aquafina water, baked lay's crisps and Quaker Granola Bars.
Coca-Cola will now try to regain the crown. Having endured various troubles and two chief executives since the death in 1997 of Roberto Goizueta, a much-admired boss, Coke brought a veteran, Neville Isdell, out of retirement last year to reinvigorate the company. Mr. Isdell knows a thing or two about being in second place. In the 1980s he took Coke from the number two spot in the Philip pines to move ahead of Pepsi.
Mr. Isdell has Coke's own sports drink, Powerade, in his portfolio--but he could have had Gatorade. Five years ago another fizzy drink (champagne) was on ice, to celebrate Coca-Cola's $15.8 billion takeover of Quaker Oats, then owner of Gatorade. This takeover was supposed to lead Coke into what looked to be a hot new market for health drinks. But the "Sage of Omaha", as Mr. Buffett is known, blocked the deal, in part because it would have diluted the value of Coke's shares. Pepsi took over Quaker Oats instead--a memory that must leave Mr. Buffett and other Coke shareholders with a bitter taste in their mouths.

单选题 The story of Mr. Buffett is noted to suggest that
A. Mr. Buffett is the investor of Coca-Cola.B. Pepsi is served in the pizza parlour.
C. Coke is now served in the pizza parlour.D. Coke used to win the battle against Pepsi.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 篇章结构题。由题干中的Buffett定位至首段第二句，根据提问形式可以看出这里给出论据，让考生找出其支持的论点。首句指出：在一个多世纪的斗争中，可口可乐一直都是领先于百事可乐的。接下来就给出了可口可乐公司的投资者Boffett先生的例子。显然作者给出这个故事是为了说明首句的观点，故[D]为答案。避错指导：[A]和[B]都是第二句中提到的细节内容，本题考查的是观点，排除这两项；该故事发生在过去，从该句可知后来可口可乐取代了百事可乐出现在该比萨店的菜单上，至于现在是什么情况我们不得而知，排除[C]。
单选题 What can be inferred from the figures in Paragraph 2?
A. Coke is now in a humiliating situation.
B. Pepsi excelled Coke in sales.
C. Coke falls behind Pepsi in stock market value.
D. Pepsi earned more profit than Coke.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 推理判断题。由题于内容定位至第二段。由该段首句中的If only...，it might have avoided a humiliating reversal in fortunes可知可口可乐公司的财富状况发生了逆转。接下来，作者指出12月12日百事可乐公司的市值第一次超过了可口可乐公司，并给出一系列数字对此进行说明。可见这些数字说明可口可乐公司的市值低于百事可乐，故[C]为答案。避错指导：首句提到humiliating，此处是说可口可乐公司被百事公司超过，这种状况让人觉得耻辱，后面的数字是对第二句内容的说明，与旨句中的humiliating无关，排除[A]；此处提到market capitalisation，market value，没有涉及sales，也没有提到利润，排除[B]和[D]。
单选题 By listing some products of Pepsi, the author wants to tell us that
A. Coke is making the same products. B. he prefers Pepsi to Coke.
C. Pepsi has many different products. D. Pepsi is successful except soft drinks.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 推理判断题。由于前两段已经设题，根据题干中的关键词products和Pepsi定位至第三段首句。在第二段指出百事可乐市值超过了可口可乐之后，本段分析百事取胜的原因：增加了诸如“给他力”这样的新产品。该产品表明百事已经从主要依赖含糖饮料转向依赖其他产品。该段末句对此做进一步说明：据称，百事可乐年收入的20%来自软饮料，而可口可乐公司年收入的80%来自软饮料。由此可以推断，百事可乐之所以胜出是因为开拓了软饮料之外的其他产品，市场反响好，故可推断[D]为答案。避错指导：文中没有提到可口可乐公司与百事公司开发相同的产品，排除[A]；文中没有提到作者自己的喜好，排除[B]；从该段可以看出[C]内容正确，但这只是对细节的归纳，作者提到这些产品的真正意图在于支持该段论点，分析百事可乐胜出的原因，排除此项。
单选题 The word "reinvigorate" ( Line 3, Paragraph 5 ) probably means
A. to keep healthy. B. to remain stronger.
C. to reform and better. D. to change.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 语义理解题。本题定位至第五段，从该词所在的上下文寻找解题线索。该段首句指出：可口可乐公司现在试图重摘桂冠。接着介绍该公司采取何种措施来重振雄风：可口可乐公司让富有经验的内维尔·艾斯迪尔reinvigorate公司。既然想赢回声誉，就要进行一系列改革，迎头赶上，reform and better符合本处语境，故[C]为答案。避错指导：此处谈论如何让可口可乐公司进步，超过百事公司，与健康无关，排除[A]；可口可乐公司已经落后，面临的问题是超过百事公司，不是保持自己的优势地位，排除[B]；[D]具有较强干扰性，与[C]相比，此项含义模糊，不够具体，没有“变好，改善”之意，排除。
单选题 The text suggests that Mr. Isdell
A. will take over Gatorade. B. will promote Powerade.
C. rejected Mr. Buffett's decision. D. regrets about his decision.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 推理判断题。最后两段都提到Mr.Isdell，由于倒数第二段已经设题，因此本题考点在末段。首句指出：艾斯迪尔先生已经设计了可口可乐公司自己的运动饮料Powerade。破折号后面出现了虚拟语气：他本可以得到“给他力”的。接下来解释了与“给他力”所有者桂格公司的交易没成功的原因：担心降低可口可乐公司的股票份额。由该段第三句：这宗交易(有关“给他力”的交易)被认为可以引领可口可乐进入健康饮料这个炙手可热的新市场。由此可以推断出五年前可口可乐公司错过了一次好机会，既然它现在开发了Powerade，就会大力促销，由此推断出[B]内容。避错指导：现在“给他力”是百事公司的产品， Powerade还未投放市场，市场反响如何不得而知，排除[A]；末段在提到那笔未谈成的交易时提及巴菲特先生，他与艾斯迪尔无关，排除[C]；该段末句提到巴菲特和可口可乐的股票持有者们对没有谈成的交易痛心疾首，没有提到艾斯迪尔对自己所做的决定后悔，排除[D]。