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How a Frenchman is reviving McDonald’s in Europe
A. When Denis Hennequin took over as the European boss of McDonald’s in
January 2004, the world’s biggest restaurant chain was showing signs of recovery
in America and Australia, but sales in Europe were sluggish or declining. One
exception was France, where Mr Hennequin had done a sterling job as head of the
group’s French subsidiary to sell more Big Macs to his compatriots. His task was
to replicate this success in all 41 of the European countries where
anti-globalisers’ favourite enemy operates.
B. So far Mr Hennequin is doing well. Last year European sales increased by
5.8% and the number of customers by 3.4%, the best annual results in nearly 15
years. Europe accounted for 36% of the group’s profits and for 28% of its sales.
December was an especially good month as customers took to seasonal menu
offerings in France and Britain, and to a promotion in Germany based on the game
of Monopoly.
C. Mr Hennequin’s recipe for revival is to be more open about his company’s
operations, to be “locally relevant”, and to improve the experience of visiting
his 6,400 restaurants. McDonald’s is blamed for making people fat, exploiting
workers, treating animals cruelly, polluting the environment and simply for
being American. Mr Hennequin says he wants to engage in a dialogue with the
public to address these concerns.
D. He introduced “open door” visitor days in each country which became hugely
popular. In Poland alone some 50,000 visitors came to McDonald’s through the
visitors’ programme last year. The Nutrition Information Initiative, launched
last year, put detailed labels on McDonald’s packaging with data on calories,
protein, fat, carbohydrates and salt content. The details are also printed on
tray-liners.
E. Mr Hennequin also wants people to know that “McJobs”, the low-paid menial
jobs at McDonald’s restaurants, are much better than people think. But some of
his efforts have backfired: last year he sparked a controversy with the
introduction of a “McPassport” that allows McDonald’s employees to work anywhere
in the European Union. Politicians accused the firm of a ploy to make cheap
labour from eastern Europe more easily available to McDonald’s managers across
the continent.
F. To stay in touch with local needs and preferences, McDonald’s employs
local bosses as much as possible. A Russian is running McDonald’s in Russia,
though a Serb is in charge of Germany. The group buys mainly from local
suppliers. Four-fifths of its supplies in France come from local farmers, for
example. (Some of the French farmers who campaigned against the company in the
late 1990s subsequently discovered that it was, in fact, buying their produce.)
And it hires celebrities such as Heidi Klum, a German model, as local brand
ambassadors.
G. In his previous job Mr Hennequin established a “design studio” in France
to spruce up his company’s drab restaurants and adapt the interior to local
tastes. The studio is now masterminding improvements everywhere in Europe. He
also set up a “food studio”, where cooks devise new recipes in response to local
trends.
H. Given France’s reputation as the most anti-American country in Europe, it
seems odd that McDonald’s revival in Europe is being led by a Frenchman, using
ideas cooked up in the French market. But France is in fact the company’s most
profitable market after America. The market where McDonald’s is weakest in
Europe is not France, but Britain.
I. “Fixing Britain should be his priority,” says David Palmer, a restaurant
analyst at UBS. Almost two-thirds of the 1,214 McDonald’s restaurants in Britain
are company-owned, compared with 40% in Europe and 15% in America. The company
suffers from the volatility of sales at its own restaurants, but can rely on
steady income from franchisees. So it should sell as many underperforming
outlets as possible, says Mr Palmer.
J. M.Mark Wiltamuth, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, estimates that European
company-owned restaurants’ margins will increase slightly to 16.4% in 2007. This
is still less than in the late 1990s and below America’s 18-19% today. But it is
much better than before Mr Hennequin’s reign. He is already being tipped as the
first European candidate for the group’s top job in Illinois. Nobody would call
that a McJob.
Notes to Reading Passage 1
1.sterling高质量的
e.g. He has many sterling qualities. 他身上有许多优秀的品质。
2. menial 不体面的, 乏味的(工作、职业)
3. spruce up打扮整齐、漂亮、装饰
4. mastermind指挥、谋划(一个计划或活动)
e.g. The police know who masterminded the robbery.警察知道是谁策划了那次抢劫。
5. underperform表现不佳表现出低于标准的工作水平、企业出现亏本
Questions 1-6
Do the following statements reflect the claims of the writer in Reading
Passage 1?
Write your answer in Boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
TRUE if the statement reflects the claims of the writer
FALSE if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
1. McDonald was showing the sign of recovery in all European countries except
France after Denis Hennequin took office as the boss of Euro-markets.
2. Starting from last year, detailed labels are put on McDonald’s packaging
and detailed information is also printed on tray-liners.
3. France is said to be the most anti-American country in Europe, but the
ideas of the “open door” visiting days and “McPassport” are invented in the
French market.
4. Britain possesses the weakest McDonald market among European countries and
approximately 1214 McDonald’s restaurants are company-owned.
5. According to David Palmer, a restaurant analyst at UBS, David Hennequin
should treat the problem about McDonald in Britain as the most important
thing.
6. David Palmer suggested that the management of McDonalod in Italy should
sell as many its outlets which lose money in business as possible for
revival.
Questions 7-10
Choose the appropriate letters A-D and write them in boxes 7-10 on your answe
sheet.
7. The word “sterling” in line 3 of Paragraph A means__________.
A. difficult
B. menial
C. terrible
D. excellent
8. Which of the following statements on the accusation of MacDonald is NOT
TRUE?
A. It tends to make people fat.
B. Its operations are very vague.
C. It tends to exploit workers.
D. It tends to treat animals cruelly.
9. Which of the following measures taken by Denis Hennequin produced
undesired result?
A. “Food Studio” scheme.
B. “Open Door” visitor days.
C. The “McPassport” scheme.
D. The Nutrition Information Initiative.
10. What did Denis Hennequin do so as to respond to local trends?
A. set up a “Food Studio” .
B. established a “Design Studio”.
C. hired celebrities as local brand ambassadors.
D. employed local bosses as much as possible.
Questions 11-14
Complete each of the following statements (Questions 11-14) with words or
number taken from Reading Passage 1.
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 11-14 on your answer sheet.
11. After January 2004, McDonald was making improvement following a period of
slump in America and Australia, but sales in Europe were ………………………….
12. Business of McDonald in France and Britain was particularly good in
December since customers took to ……………………………..
13. Compared with other countries, France is McDonald’s ………………………. next to
America.
14. ……………………. of McDonald’s restaurants in America are companied–owned and
the figure is much lower than that in Britain.
new weapon to fight cancer
1. British scientists are preparing to launch trials of a radical new way to
fight cancer, which kills tumours by infecting them with viruses like the common
cold.
2. If successful, virus therapy could eventually form a third pillar
alongside radiotherapy and chemotherapy in the standard arsenal against cancer,
while avoiding some of the debilitating side-effects.
3. Leonard Seymour, a professor of gene therapy at Oxford University, who has
been working on the virus therapy with colleagues in London and the US, will
lead the trials later this year. Cancer Research UK said yesterday that it was
excited by the potential of Prof Seymour’s pioneering techniques.
4. One of the country’s leading geneticists, Prof Seymour has been working
with viruses that kill cancer cells directly, while avoiding harm to healthy
tissue. "In principle, you’ve got something which could be many times more
effective than regular chemotherapy," he said.
5. Cancer-killing viruses exploit the fact that cancer cells suppress the
body’s local immune system. "If a cancer doesn’t do that, the immune system
wipes it out. If you can get a virus into a tumour, viruses find them a very
good place to be because there’s no immune system to stop them replicating. You
can regard it as the cancer’s Achilles’ heel."
6. Only a small amount of the virus needs to get to the cancer. "They
replicate, you get a million copies in each cell and the cell bursts and they
infect the tumour cells adjacent and repeat the process," said Prof Seymour.
7. Preliminary research on mice shows that the viruses work well on tumours
resistant to standard cancer drugs. "It’s an interesting possibility that they
may have an advantage in killing drug-resistant tumours, which could be quite
different to anything we’ve had before."
8. Researchers have known for some time that viruses can kill tumour cells
and some aspects of the work have already been published in scientific journals.
American scientists have previously injected viruses directly into tumours but
this technique will not work if the cancer is inaccessible or has spread
throughout the body.
9. Prof Seymour’s innovative solution is to mask the virus from the body’s
immune system, effectively allowing the viruses to do what chemotherapy drugs do
- spread through the blood and reach tumours wherever they are. The big hurdle
has always been to find a way to deliver viruses to tumours via the bloodstream
without the body’s immune system destroying them on the way.
10. "What we’ve done is make chemical modifications to the virus to put a
polymer coat around it - it’s a stealth virus when you inject it," he said.
11. After the stealth virus infects the tumour, it replicates, but the copies
do not have the chemical modifications. If they escape from the tumour, the
copies will be quickly recognised and mopped up by the body’s immune system.
12. The therapy would be especially useful for secondary cancers, called
metastases, which sometimes spread around the body after the first tumour
appears. "There’s an awful statistic of patients in the west ... with malignant
cancers; 75% of them go on to die from metastases," said Prof Seymour.
13. Two viruses are likely to be examined in the first clinical trials:
adenovirus, which normally causes a cold-like illness, and vaccinia, which
causes cowpox and is also used in the vaccine against smallpox. For safety
reasons, both will be disabled to make them less pathogenic in the trial, but
Prof Seymour said he eventually hopes to use natural viruses.
14. The first trials will use uncoated adenovirus and vaccinia and will be
delivered locally to liver tumours, in order to establish whether the treatment
is safe in humans and what dose of virus will be needed. Several more years of
trials will be needed, eventually also on the polymer-coated viruses, before the
therapy can be considered for use in the NHS. Though the approach will be
examined at first for cancers that do not respond to conventional treatments,
Prof Seymour hopes that one day it might be applied to all cancers.
Questions 1-6
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading
passage? For questions 1-6 write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this in the passage
1.Virus therapy, if successful, has an advantage in eliminating
side-effects.
2.Cancer Research UK is quite hopeful about Professor Seymour’s work on the
virus therapy.
3.Virus can kill cancer cells and stop them from growing again.
4.Cancer’s Achilles’ heel refers to the fact that virus may stay safely in a
tumor and replicate.
5.To infect the cancer cells, a good deal of viruses should be injected into
the tumor.
6.Researches on animals indicate that virus could be used as a new way to
treat drug-resistant tumors.
Question 7-9
Based on the reading passage, choose the appropriate letter from A-D for each
answer.
7.Information about researches on viruses killing tumor cells can be
found
(A) on TV
(B) in magazines
(C) on internet
(D) in newspapers
8.To treat tumors spreading out in body, researchers try to
(A) change the body’ immune system
(B) inject chemotherapy drugs into bloodstream.
(C) increase the amount of injection
(D) disguise the viruses on the way to tumors.
9.When the chemical modified virus in tumor replicates, the copies
(A) will soon escape from the tumor and spread out.
(B) will be wiped out by the body’s immune system.
(C) will be immediately recognized by the researchers.
(D) will eventually stop the tumor from spreading out.
Questions 10-13
Complete the sentences below. Choose your answers from the list of words. You
can only use each word once.
NB There are more words in the list than spaces so you will not use them
all.
In the first clinical trials, scientists will try to ……10…… adenovirus and
vaccinia, so both the viruses will be less pathogenic than the ……11…….These
uncoated viruses will be applied directly to certain areas to confirm safety on
human beings and the right ……12…… needed. The experiments will firstly be
……13……to the treatment of certain cancers
