填空题How Poison Ivy Works According to the American Academy of Dermatology, an estimated 10 to 50 million people in this country have an allergic reaction to poison ivy each year. Poison ivy is often very difficult to spot. It closely resembles several other common garden plants, and can also blend in with other plants and weeds. But if you come into contact with it, you'll soon know by the itchy, blistery rash that forms on your skin. Poison ivy is a red, itchy rash caused by the plant that bears its name. Many people get it when they are hiking or working in their garden and accidentally come into direct contact with the plant's leaves, roots, or stems. The poison ivy rash often looks like red lines, and sometimes it forms blisters. 1. ______ About 85 percent of people are allergic to the urushiol in poison ivy, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. Only a tiny amount of this chemical -- 1 billionth of a gram -- is enough to cause a rash in many people. Some people may boast that they've been exposed to poison ivy many times and have never gotten the rash, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're not allergic. Sometimes the allergy doesn't emerge until you've been exposed several times, and some people develop a rash after their very first exposure. It may take up to ten days for the rash to emerge the first time. 2. ______ Here are some other ways to identify the poison ivy plant. It generally grows in a cluster of low, weed-like plants or a woody vine which can climb trees or fences. It is most often found in moist areas, such as riverbanks, woods, and pastures. The edges of the leaves are generally smooth or have tiny "teeth". Their color changes based on the season -- reddish in the spring; green in the summer; and yellow, orange, or red in the fall. Its berries are typically white. 3. ______ The body's immune system is normally in the business of protecting us from bacteria, viruses, and other foreign invaders that can make us sick. But when urushiol from the poison ivy plant touches the skin, it instigates an immune response, called dermatitis, to what would otherwise be a harmless substance. Hay fever is another example of this type of response; in the case of hay fever, the immune system overreacts to pollen, or another plant-produced substance. 4. ______ The allergic reaction to poison ivy is known as delayed hypersensitivity. Unlike immediate hypersensitivity, which causes an allergic reaction within minutes of exposure to an antigen, delayed hypersensitivity reactions don't emerge for several hours or even days after the exposure. 5. ______ In the places where your skin has come into contact with poison ivy leaves or urushiol, within one to two days you'll develop a rash, which will usually itch, redden, burn, swell, and form blisters. The rash should go away within a week, but it can last longer. The severity of the reaction often has to do with how much urushiol you've touched. The rash may appear sooner in some parts of the body than in others, but it doesn't spread -- the urushiol simply absorbs into the skin at different rates in different parts of the body. Thicker skin such as the skin on the soles of your feet, is harder to penetrate than thinner skin on your arms and legs. A Because urushiol is found in all parts of the poison ivy plant -- the leaves, stems, and roots -- it's best to avoid the plant entirely to prevent a rash. The trouble is, poison ivy grows almost everywhere in the United States (with the exception of the Southwest, Alaska, and Hawaii), so geography won't help you. The general rule to identify poison ivy, "leaflets three, let it be," doesn't always apply. Poison ivy usually does grow in groups of three leaves, with a longer middle leaf -- but it can also grow with up to nine leaves in a group. B Most people don't have a reaction the first time they touch poison ivy, but develop an allergic reaction after repeated exposure. Everyone has a different sensitivity, and therefore a slightly different reaction, to poison ivy. Sensitivity usually decreases with age and with repeated exposures to the plant. C Here's how the poison ivy response occurs. Urushiol makes its way down through the skin, where it is metabolized, or broken down. Immune cells called T lymphocytes (or T-cells) recognize the urushiol derivatives as a foreign substance, or antigen. They send out inflammatory signals called cytokines, which bring in white blood cells. Under orders from the cytokines, these white blood cells turn into macrophages. The macrophages eat foreign substances, but in doing so they also damage normal tissue, resulting in the skin inflammation that occurs with poison ivy. D Poison ivy's cousins, poison oak and poison sumac, each have their own unique appearance. Poison oak grows as a shrub (one to six feet tall). It is typically found along the West Coast and in the South, in dry areas such as fields, woodlands, and thickets. Like poison ivy, the leaves of poison oak are usually clustered in groups of three. They tend to be thick, green, and hairy on both sides. Poison sumac mainly grows in moist, swampy areas in the Northeast, Midwest, and along the Mississippi River. It is a woody shrub made up of stems with rows of seven to thirteen smooth-edged leaflets. E The culprit behind the rash is a chemical in the sap of poison ivy plants called urushiol. Its name comes from the Japanese word "urushi", meaning lacquer. Urushiol is the same substance that triggers an allergic reaction when people touch poison oak and poison sumac plants. Poison ivy, Eastern poison oak, Western poison oak, and poison sumac are all members of the same family -- Anacardiaceae. F Call your doctor if you experience these more serious reactions: Pus around the rash (which could indicate an infection). A rash around your mouth, eyes, or genital area. A fever above 100 degrees. A rash that does not heal after a week.

填空题Text 3 Since the mid-1960s Southeast Asia has faced a potentially wide-ranging security threat. Well before the events of September 11, the region was enduring a slump in exports and a falloff in foreign investment as Western firms headed to China. Even Singapore's economy, the region's strongest, probably shrank by 2% in 2001, while Indonesia, the weakest player, is struggling to avert a new foreign debt crisis. Now the region is being seen overseas as a breeding ground for international terrorists. Foreign businesses have stopped sending execs to the region to explore new opportunities, while companies are beefing up security at their offices and homes. Clearly, the region's governments need to show the world they can keep the peace. That requires achieving a tricky balancing act: Authorities must provide adequate security to foreign firms without being alarmist and scaring them off completely. Also vexing for Southeast Asian governments is how to deal with US offers of military assistance. Nations with large Muslim populations cannot afford to make open appeals to the US for help. Nowhere is this more true than in Indonesia, the most likely spot for A1 Qaeda to operate. Indonesia is resisting pressure from the US because it can ill afford a nationalist revenge. Southeast Asia's ailing economies won't easily weather another round of investor disenchantment. As it is, foreign businesspeople are becoming increasingly jittery. The perceived growth of radical Islam is clearly having a deleterious impact on the Indonesian economy. To be sure, the weak global economy is responsible for some of the dropoff in orders. But the numbers make grim reading. Indonesian exports fell from $3.6 billion in October to $3 billion in November, 2001, a drop of 16% in one month, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics. Foreign direct investment plunged from $1.9 billion in November, 2001 to $630 million in December of the same year. Meanwhile, Indonesia's domestic economy is feeling increasingly vulnerable. Wanandi, the CEO of an auto assembling company, believes the government is not doing enough! Like most Indonesians, Wanandi agrees that inviting in US troops is politically impossible. He is calling instead for the Indonesian military to be given greater powers to crack down on militant groups. "There is a lot of competition between the army and the police," he says. "That's why a lot of bombing is going on. No one is being punished." The trouble is, the foe is maddeningly elusive. But until the threat fades, Southeast Asia will have to deal with declining foreign investment, jittery execs, and, in Indonesia, rising poverty and instability — the very environment in which terror groups thrive.

填空题Whatdidthespeakertalkaboutlasttime?

填空题Perhaps (31) are far more wives that I imagine who take it for (32) that housework is neither satisfying nor even important once the basic demands of hygiene and feeding have been (33) . But home and family is the one realm in (34) it is really difficult to shake free of one's upbringing and create new values. My parents' house was impeccably kept; cleanliness (35) a moral and social virtue, and personal untidiness, visibly old clothes, or long male hair provoked biting jocularity. If that (36) been all, maybe I could have adapted myself (37) housework on (38) easy-going, utilitarian basis, refusing the moral overtones but still believing in it as something constructive (38) it is part of creating a home. But at the same time my mother used to resent (40) it, called it drudgery, and convinced me that it wasn't fit activity for an intelligent being. I was the only child, and once I was at school there was no (41) why she should have continued (42) her will to remain housebound, unless, as I suspect, my father would not hear of her having a job of her own. I can now begin to understand why a woman in a small suburban house, with no infants to look (43) , who does not (44) reading because she has not had much of an education, and who is intelligent (45) to find neighborly chit-chat boring, should carry the pursuit of microscopic specks of dust to the (46) of fanaticism in an (47) to fill hours and salvage her self-respect. My parents had not even the status-seeking impetus to send me to university that Joe's had; my mother (48) me to be "a nice quiet person who wouldn't be noticed (49) a crowd", and it was feared that university education (50) in ingratitude (independence).

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填空题Massive Growth of Ecotourism Worries Biologists Something weird is happening in the wilderness. The animals are becoming restless. Polar bears and penguins, dolphins and dingoes, even birds in the rainforest are becoming stressed. They are losing weight, with some dying as a result. The cause is a pursuit intended to have the opposite effect: ecotourism. 1. ______ Ecotourism has clear benefits. Poor countries that are rich in biodiversity benefit from the money tourists bring in, supposedly without damaging the environment. "Ecotourism is an alternative activity to overuse of natural resources," says Geoffrey Howard of the East Africa office of IUCN (the World Conservation Union) in Nairobi, Kenya. "Many of our projects encourage ecotourism so that rural people can make a living out of something apart from using too much of the forests or fisheries or wetlands." 2. ______ What is not considered are less obvious impacts. "Transmission of disease to wildlife, or subtle changes to wildlife health through disturbance of daily routines or increased stress levels, while not apparent to a casual observer, may translate to lowered survival and breeding," says Philip Seddon of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. 3. ______ Such changes in behaviour "are potentially serious for the population", says Gordon Hastie, a marine mammal expert at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Hastie and his team have found that dolphins in the Moray Firth in Scotland spend significantly more time surfacing synchronously in the presence of boats than they do otherwise. This could lead to the animals resting more at night, possibly reducing the time they spend socialising and foraging. 4. ______ Markus Dyck and Richard Baydack of the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, have found that signs of vigilance among male bears increased nearly sevenfold when vehicles were around. Just one vehicle could disturb the bears. 5. ______ Such effects are seen among yellow-eyed penguins in the Otago peninsula in New Zealand. Observations by Seddon"s team, also to be published in Biological Conservation, show that chicks in areas frequently visited by tourists weigh on average 0.76 kilograms less than chicks in an area not visited, a fall of over 10 per cent. This could be a result of parents taking longer to reach the chicks after they finish foraging at sea. "Yellow-eyed penguins tend to delay landing if people are clearly visible at their beach landing sites," says Seddon. "Penguins will run back into the sea if approached on the beach, and will wait beyond the breakers until a beach is clear." Such delays could mean that the birds digest some of the food that they would otherwise regurgitate to feed their chicks. Seddon found that the lighter chicks were less likely to survive, and he fears that heavy tourist traffic could ultimately spark the failure of a colony. A For instance, Rochelle Constantine of the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and her colleagues have been monitoring schools of bottlenose dolphins along the country"s north-eastern coast since 1996. In an upcoming paper in Biological Conservation, they report that the dolphins become increasingly frenetic when tourist boats are present. They rest for as little as 0.5 per cent of the time when three or more boats are close, compared with 68 per cent of the time in the presence of a single research boat. B Like dolphins, the bears may pay a heavy price for such altered behaviour. The tourist visits could be increasing the animals" heart rates and metabolism when they ought to be conserving their energy, and this could be reducing their body fat and individual fitness, the researchers argue. "For slow-breeding animals the effects could take years to detect, by which time it may be too late to reverse the damage," says Constantine. C The massive growth of the ecotourist industry has biologists worried. Evidence is growing that many animals do not react well to tourists in their backyard. The immediate effects can be subtle -- changes to an animal"s heart rate, physiology, stress hormone levels and social behaviour, for example -- but in the long term the impact tourists are having could endanger the survival of the very wildlife they want to see. D Ecotourism can have an even more detrimental effect in the wilderness regions of Africa and South America. "In more remote places such as the Amazon, there"s not much control," says ecologist Martin Wikelski of Princeton University in New Jersey. E Land animals are affected too. Since the early 1980s, specialised vehicles have been taking people to watch polar bears during October and November in Manitoba, Canada, a time when the animals should be resting and waiting for Hudson Bay to freeze over so they can start hunting seals. But often the bears are not resting as they should. F But while the IUCN and other organisations, and governments of nations such as New Zealand and Australia, try to ensure that their projects are ecologically feasible, many ecotourist projects are unaudited, unaccredited and merely hint they are based on environmentally friendly policies and operations. The guidelines that do exist mostly address the obvious issues such as changes in land use, cutting down trees, making tracks, or scaring wildlife.

填空题 You will hear a talk about computers. As you listen, you must answer Questions 21-30 by writing NO MORE THAN THREE words in the space provided on the right. You will hear the talk TWICE. You now have 60 seconds to read Questions 21-30.

填空题According to the American Academy of Dermatology, an estimated 10 to 50 million people in this country have an allergic reaction to poison ivy each year. Poison ivy is often very difficult to spot. It closely resembles several other common garden plants, and can also blend in with other plants and weeds. But if you come into contact with it, you'll soon know by the itchy, blistery rash that forms on your skin. Poison ivy is a red, itchy rash caused by the plant that bears its name. Many people get it when they are hiking or working in their garden and accidentally come into direct contact with the plant's leaves, roots, or stems. The poison ivy rash often looks like red lines, and sometimes it forms blisters. 66. ______ About 85 percent of people are allergic to the urushiol in poison ivy, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. Only a tiny amount of this chemical—1 billionth of a gram—is enough to cause a rash in many people. Some people may boast that they've been exposed to poison ivy many times and have never gotten the rash, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're not allergic. Sometimes the allergy doesn't emerge until you've been exposed several times, and some people develop a rash after their very first exposure. It may take up to ten days for the rash to emerge the first time. 67. ______ Here are some other ways to identify the poison ivy plant. It generally grows in a cluster of low, weed-like plants or a woody vine which can climb trees or fences. It is most often found in moist areas, such as riverbanks, woods, and pastures. The edges of the leaves are generally smooth or have tiny "teeth". Their color changes based on the season—reddish in the spring; green in the summer; and yellow, orange, or red in the fall. Its berries are typically white. 68. ______ The body's immune system is normally in the business of protecting us from bacteria, viruses, and the foreign invaders that can make us sick. But when urushiol from the poison ivy plant touches the skin, it instigates an immune response, called dermatitis, to what would otherwise be a harmless substance. Hay fever is another example of this type of response; in the case of hay fever, the immune system overreacts to pollen, or another plant-produced substance. 69. ______ The allergic reaction to poison ivy is known as delayed hypersensitivity. Unlike immediate hypersensitivity, which causes an allergic reaction within minutes of exposure to an antigen, delayed hypersensitivity reactions don't emerge for several hours or even days after the exposure. 70. ______ In the places where your skin has come into contact with poison ivy leaves or urushiol, within one to two days you'll develop a rash, which will usually itch, redden, burn, swell, and form blisters. The rash should go away within a week, but it can last longer. The severity of the reaction often has to do with how much urushiol you've touched. The rash may appear sooner in some parts of the body than in others, but it doesn't spread—the urushiol simply absorbs into the skin at different rates in different parts of the body. Thicker skin such as the skin on the soles of your feet, is harder to penetrate than thinner skin on your arms and legs. A. Because urushiol is found in all parts of the poison ivy plant the leaves, stems, and roots—it's best to avoid the plant entirely to prevent a rash. The trouble is, poison ivy grows almost everywhere in the United States (with the exception of the Southwest, Alaska, and Hawaii), so geography won't help you. The general rule to identify poison ivy, "leaflets three, let it be, " doesn't always apply. Poison ivy usually does grow in groups of three leaves, with a longer middle leaf—but it can also grow with up to nine leaves in a group. B. Most people don't have a reaction the first time they touch poison ivy, but develop an allergic reaction after repeated exposure. Everyone has a different sensitivity, and therefore a slightly different reaction, to poison ivy. Sensitivity usually decreases with age and with repeat exposures to the plant. C. Here's how the poison ivy response occurs. Urushiol makes its way down through the skin, where it is metabolized, or broken down. Immune cells called T lymphocytes (or T-cells) recognize the urushiol derivatives as a foreign substance, or antigen. They send out inflammatory signals called cytokines, which bring in white blood cells. Under orders from the cytokines, these white blood cells turn into macrophages. The macrophages eat foreign substances, but in doing so they also damage normal tissue, resulting in the skin inflammation that occurs with poison ivy. D. Poison ivy's cousins, poison oak and poison sumac, each have their own unique appearance. Poison oak grows as a shrub (one to six feet tall). It is typically found along the West Coast and in the South, in dry areas such fields, woodlands, and thickets. Like poison ivy, the leaves of poison oak are usually clustered in groups of three. They tend to be thick, green, and hairy on both sides. Poison sumac mainly grows in moist, swampy areas in the Northeast, Midwest, and along the Mississippi River. It is a woody shrub made up of stems with rows of seven to thirteen smooth-edged leaflets. E. The culprit behind the rash is a chemical in the sap of poison ivy plants called urushiol. Its name comes from the Japanese word "urushi, " meaning lacquer. Urushiol is the same substance that triggers an allergic reaction when people touch poison oak and poison sumac plants. Poison ivy, Eastern poison oak, Western poison oak, and poison sumac are all members of the same family—Anacardiaceae. F. Call your doctor if you experience these more serious reactions: ·Pus around the rash (which could indicate an infection). ·A rash around your mouth, eyes, or genital area. ·A fever above 100 degrees. ·A rash that does not heal after a week.

填空题is the second largest city in population in U. S. A..

填空题WhatdoyouknowaboutBeethoven'smusictalentwhenhewas7?

填空题 Aspects That May Facilitate Reading Ⅰ. Determining your purpose A. Reading for (1) ______: like reading the latest Harry Potty Novel (1) ______ B. Reading for information: like reading in a (n) (2) ______ of the library (2) ______ Ⅱ. Prior knowledge A. An initial key in helping you (3) ______ (3) ______ —what the article will be about —whether it will interest you —whether it is familiar to you B. A help for the reader to —find some material easy to understand —build his or her (4) ______ of the new text (4) ______ Ⅲ. Interest A. providing you with an extra (5) ______ for reading (5) ______ B. making you care more about what the author has to say Ⅵ. (6) ______ your progress (reading with a pencil) (6) ______ A. asking questions on headlines and rifles B. noting words you don’t understand C. (7) ______ ideas you like (7) ______ Ⅴ. Summarizing the main points A. listing the (8) ______ of each paragraph (8) ______ B. lumping together paragraphs with similar ideas C. putting key ideas into your own words D. (9) ______ the common thoughts or thread (9) ______ Ⅵ. Mapping out the essay A. creating a visual representation of the essay B. having a picture of something in your mind in various shapes e.g., lists, diagrams, (10) ______ (10) ______

填空题PresidentKennedydied______yearsbeforethedaythespeechwasmade.

填空题During 1958 the West German government caused some disappointment to the British and French aircraft industries by failing to order British or French interceptors for the re-established German Air Force. Instead they ordered the American Lockheed F-104 Starfighter. Even so it was well known beforehand that whatever aircraft were ordered would be regarded as interim equipment, against the day when a very high-speed vertical take-off aircraft became available—if ever.66. ______ A step towards this ideal interceptor seems to have been taken. It has just been reported that the Ministry of Defense in Bonn has awarded "a secret development contract to a French firm for a new type of vertical take-off fighter"—the coleopter.67. ______ Basically, tile Coleoptere is a jet engine, adapted to run in a vertical position while sitting on its tail, with a small cockpit on the top. Several aircraft of roughly this form have been flying for some time in the United States, but the Coleoptere is unique in that it has an annular wing; the aircraft stands inside it like a salt cellar inside a napkin ring. What is stopping the Coleoptere becoming a successful vertical take-off aircraft? The first difficulty has been to develop a precise and reliable method of balancing the aircraft on the column of air from its jet pipe during take-off and landing and, more particularly, during manoeuvres out of the vertical.68. ______ Another control difficulty was that of overcoming the torque imparted to a vertical engine by its own rotating compressor and turbine wheels.69. ______ A sensitive pilot can control the height of a unit such as this by careful operation of the throttle, so that the thrust of the jet balances its weight, but it would take a Superman to control pitching and rolling forces at the same time; automatic stabilisation has therefore to be introduced. This consists of a system of gyroscopes and gyrometers which sense the aircraft's movements and operate the jet steering system, the directional nozzle unit which counteracts tilting, and auxiliary air jets which compensate for any tendency to rotate.70. ______ Nevertheless, before a successful coleopter can be achieved it must be shown that the Atar Volant with an annular wing can make the transition from vertical to horizontal flight, that the annular wing can support the aircraft in horizontal flight, and also that the much more tricky transition from horizontal flight back to a tail-first landing can be successfully made. The C.400 P.3 has accordingly been built as a full-scale coleopter to carry out the appropriate test programme. No doubt we can look forward to seeing it in flight at the International Paris Air Salon, which will be held in June this year at Le Bourget.A. The engine produced by SNECMA engineers to overcome these problems was a straightforward turbojet in their "Atar" series, and in the logical French way it became known as the Atar Volant or C.400 P1. It was encased in a simple fairing which contained fuel and remote-control equipment. As the complete unit weighed 5600 pounds and the engine could produce a thrust of 6200 pounds, vertical lift was obviously feasible.B. The MiG-21 proved itself over and over as a formidable dogfighter against the heavier American fighters which was another reason for the success of the MiG-21. Its reliable engine, easy maintenance, rough field capabilities, and save flight characteristic made it the most successful jet aircraft of all times.C. Vertical take-off implies virtually indestructible air bases, because any piece of road or any field would serve for take-off. A fast climb to height is required since West Germany could expect only the shortest warning of an attack from the east.D. I was privileged to inspect the test rig in October 1956, but even that experience was no preparation for the fantastic impression created by the second Atar Volant (the C.400 P.2), which stole the show at the international air display at Le Bourget in June 1957. At that time the P.2 surmounted by Auguste Morel, the test pilot, rose in a cloud of dust, stalked across the main runway, tilted about 20 degrees, danced back and forth, spun rapidly on its vertical axis, shot up to about 500 feet and then withdrew, leaving a sophisticated audience gasping. On the face of it the aircraft seemed distinctly unsafe but, of course, the very fact that these manoeuvres were even possible, and in rapid succession, was a considerable achievement.E. SNECMA had already had experience of directional control of high-speed airflow by mechanical means—that is, metal spoilers inserted into the jet efflux. This method inevitably generated a delay of several seconds before an alteration of the controls by the pilot could be fully effective on the aircraft. This delay is unacceptable when the aircraft's stability depends entirely on the airflow from the engines. SNECMA therefore devised a directional nozzle unit consisting of a number of auxiliary jets of low output, bled from the engine compressor and sited round the outlet of the main jet. These deflect the main jet in order to steer the machine.F. Work on this very interesting project has been going on in France for the past six years. The "firm" concerned is the Societe National d'Etude et de Construction de Moteurs d'Aviation (SNECMA), working in conjunction with Nord-Aviation, both organisations being integrated parts of the nationalised French aircraft industry. The aircraft should make its first flight this spring.

填空题Besidesthefunctionsasavitalentertainmentmedium,whatelsecanpeopleuseaTVas?

填空题Pollution is a "dirty" word. To pollute means to contaminate--to spoil something by introducing impurities which make 1 unfit or unclean to use. Pollution comes in many forms. We see it, smell it, 2 it, drink it, and stumble through it. We literally lived in and breathe pollution, and 3 surprisingly, it is beginning to 4 our health, our happiness, and our very civilization. Once we thought of pollution 5 meaning simply smog--the choking, stinging, dirty 6 that hovers over cities. But air pollution, while it is 7 the most dangerous, is only one type of contamination among several 8 attack the most basic life functions. Through the uncontrolled use of insecticides, man has polluted the land, 9 the wildlife. By 10 sewage and chemicals into river and lakes, we have contaminated our 11 water. We are polluting the oceans, too, killing the fish and 12 depriving ourselves 13 an invaluable food supply. Part of the problem is our exploding 14 . More and more people produce more wastes. But this problem is intensified by our "throw-away" technology. Each year Americans 15 of 7 million autos, 20 million tons of waste paper, 25 million pounds of toothpaste tubes and 48 million cans. We throw away gum wrappers, newspapers, and paper plates. It is no longer fashionable to 16 anything. Today almost everything is disposable. 17 of repairing a toaster or a radio, it is easier and cheaper to buy a new one and discard the old, even 18 95 percent of its parts may still be functioning. Baby diapers, which used to be made of reusable cloth, are now paper throw-aways. Soon we will wear clothing made of 19 :"Wear it once and throw it away, "will be the slogan of the fashion. Where is this all to end? Are we turning the world into a gigantic dump, or is there hope that we can solve the pollution problem? 20 solutions are in sight. A few of them are positively ingenious.

填空题It was a moment most business executives would pause to savor: late last year, German sporting goods pioneer Adidas learned that after years of declining market share, the company had sprinted past U. S. Reebok International to take second place behind Nike in the race for worldwide sales. But Robert Louis-Dreyfus, the rumpled Frenchman who now runs Adidas, didn't even stop for one of his trademark Havana cigars in celebration, worried that the company would grow complacent. Instead, he and a group of friends bought French soccer club Olympique de Marseille "Now that's something I have dreamed about since I was a kid, " Louis-Dreyfus says with an adolescent grin. 66. ______ With sales in the first three quarters of 1996 at $2.5 billion, up a blistering 30.7% over 1995, it's hard to recall the dismal shape Adidas was in when Louis-Dreyfus took over as chairman in April 1993. Founded in 1920 by Adi Dassler, the inventor of the first shoes de- signed especially for sports, the company enjoyed a near monopoly in athletic shoes until an upstart called Nike appeared in the 1970s and rode the running fad to riches. By the early 1990s Adidas had come under the control of French businessman Bernard Tapie, who was later jailed for bribing three French soccer players. Although the company tried to spruce up its staid image with a team of American designers, Adidas lost more than $100 million in 1992, prompting the French banks that had acquired control of the company from Tapie to begin a desperate search for a new owner. 67. ______ The poker-loving Louis-Dreyfus knew he had been dealt a winning hand. Following the lead set by Nike in the 1970s, he moved production to low-wage factories in China, Indonesia and Thailand and sold Adidas' European factories for a token one Deutsche mark apiece. He hired Peter Moore, a former product designer at Nike, as creative director, and set up studios in Germany for the European market and in Portland, Oregon, for the U. S. He then risked everything by doubling his advertising budget. "We went from a manufacturing company to a marketing company, " says Louis-Dreyfus. "It didn't take a genius--you just had to look at what Nike and Reebok were doing. It was easier for someone coming from the outside, with no baggage, to do it, than for somebody from inside the company. " 68. ______ "The marketing at Adidas is very, very good right now, " says Eugenio Di Maria, editor of Sporting Good Intelligence, an industry newsletter perceives Adidas as a very young brand. The company is particularly strong in apparel, much stronger than Nike and Reebok. Although 90% of Adidas products for wear on the street instead of sports fields, LouisDreyfus felt the previous management had lost sight of Adidas' roots as a sporting goods company. After all, Adi Dassler invented the screw-in stud for the soccer shoe and shod American champion Jesse Owens in the 1936 Olympics. So he sold off or folded other noncore brands that Adidas had developed, including Le Coq Sportif, Arena and Pony. Europe is still the company's largest market because Adidas dominates the apparel industry and thanks to soccer's massive popularity there. Louis-Dreyfus is quick to share credit for the turnaround with a small group of friends who bought the company with him in 1993. One of those fellow investors is a former IMS colleague, Christian Tourres, now sales director at Adidas. "We' re pretty complementary because I'm a bit of a dreamer, so it's good to have somebody knocking on your head to remind you there's a budget, " says Louis-Dreyfus. Commuting to the firm's headquarters in the Bavarian town of Herzogenaurach from his lakeside house outside Zurich, Louis-Dreyfus also transformed Adidas from a stodgy German company into a business with a global outlook. Appalled on his first day at work that the chief executive had to sign a salesman's travel voucher for $ 300, he slashed the company's bureaucracy, adopted American accounting rules and brought in international management talent. The company's chief financial officer is Australian and the international marketing manager is a Swede. English is the official language of the head office and no Germans remain on the managing board of the company, now whittled down to just himself and a few trusted aides. "It was clear we needed decentralization and financial controls, "recalls LouisDreyfus. "With German accounting rules, I never knew if I was making money or losing. " 69. ______ "He gives you a lot of freedom, " says Michael Michalsky, a 29-year-old German who heads the company's apparel design team. "He has never interfered with a decision and never complained. He's incredibly easy to work for. " 70. ______ The challenge for Louis-Dreyfus is to keep sales growing in a notoriously trend-driven business. In contrast to the boom at Adidas, for example, Reebok reported a 3% line in sales in the third quarter. Last fall Adidas rolled out a new line of shoes called "Feet You Wear" which are supposed to fit more comfortably than conventional sneakers by matching the natural contour of the foot. The first 500, 000 sold out. Adidas is an official sponsor of the World Cup, to be held next June in France, which the company hopes to turn to a marketing bonanza that will build on the strength of soccer worldwide. But Reebok also has introduced a new line called DMX Series 2000 and competition is expected to be tough come spring. A. Just as the transition was taking place, Adidas had a run of good luck. The fickle fashion trendsetters decided in early 1993 that they wanted the "retro look, " and the three stripes Adidas logo, which had been overtaken by Nike swoop, was suddenly hot again. Models such as Cindy Crawford and Claudia Schiffer and a score of rock idols sported Adidas gear on television, in films and music videos, giving the company a free publicity bonanza. Demand for Adidas products soared. B. Louis-Dreyfus, scion of a prominent French trading dynasty with an M. B. A. from Harvard, earned a reputation as a doctor to sick companies after turning around Londonbased market research firm IMS--a feat that brought him more than $10 million when the company was eventually sold. He later served as chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi, then the world's largest ad agency, which called him in when rapid growth sent profits into a tailspin. With no other company or entrepreneur willing to gamble on Adidas, Louis-Dreyfus got an incredible bargain from the banks: he and a group of friends from his days at IMS contributed just $10, 000 each in cash and signed up for $100 million in loans for 15% of the company, with an option to buy the remainder at a fixed price 18 months later. C. In another break with the traditional German workplace, Louis-Dreyfus made corporate life almost gratingly informal, employees ostentatiously called him "Rowbear" as he strides down the corridors, and bankers are still amazed when counterparts from Adidas show up for negotiations wearing sweatshirts and sneakers. D. The company's payroll, which had reached a high of 14, 600 in 1986, was pared back to just 4, 600 in 1994. It has since grown to over 6, 000. E. A sports addict who claims he hasn't missed attending a soccer World Cup final since the 1970s or the Olympic Games since 1968, the 50-year-old Louis-Dreyfus now is eminently well placed to live out many of his boyhood fantasies. Not only has he turned Adidas into a global company with market capitalization of $ 4 billion (he owns stock worth $ 250 million), but he also has endorsement contracts with a host of sports heroes from tennis great Steffi Graf to track' s Donovan Bailey, and considers it part of the job to watch his star athletes perform on the field, "There are very few chances in life to haw: such fun, " he says. F. After reducing losses in 1993, Adidas turned a profit in 1994 and has continued to surge: net income for the first three quarters in 1996 was a record $ 214 million, up 29% from the previous year. Louis-Dreyfus and his friends made vast personal fortunes when the company went public in 1995. The original investors still own 26% of the stock, which sold for $ 46 a share when trading has doubled to $ 90.

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填空题Whatdidthespeakertalkaboutlasttime?

填空题Questions 1--2 Choose the best answer.