Richard Burton probably knew nothing of the small South African town of Cullinan when he bought yet another chunky diamond for Elizabeth Taylor in 1969. Now the Cullinan mine itself, like so many of the diamonds unearthed there, is about to change hands. On November 22nd De Beers, the diamond giant that has owned the mine 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. Provided regulators approve the deal, the transfer should take place by the middle of next year.

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

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

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

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

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

1.  The Cullinan mine was named after_____.

[A] the original name of the town

[B] the name of its first owner

[C] the name of its discoverer

[D] the name of the town’s first colonist

2.   Which one of the following statements is TRUE of the Cullinan mine?

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

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

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

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

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

[A] to make profits by reducing the costs

[B] to exploit the surrounding areas of an existing mine

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

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

4. De Beers has made changes on its development stratege because_____.

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

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

[C] it switches its attention to making larger profits

[D] it wants to turn around the loss-making mines by cooperating with companies of smaller size.

5.  The future of the new class of diamond firm is _____.

[A] promising

[B] dim

[C] unknown

[D] frustrating

1. The Culliman mine in deal was named after_____.1. 正在交易的矿是以_____命名的。
[A] the original name of the town[A]小镇原来的名字
[B] the name of its first owner[B] 第一个矿主的名字
[C] the name of its discoverer[C] 矿场发现者的名字
[D] the name of 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 one of 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 mine is 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 be mined 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 the world’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] Whether the 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 said as _____.3. Petra 的运营理念可以说是_____。
[A] to make better profits by reducing the costs[A] 通过削减成本来取得更好的收益
[B] to exploit the surrounding areas of an existing mine[B] 从已经存在的矿山周围寻找资源
[C] to integrate the resources of all the money-losing small mines[C] 整合那些亏损的小矿山的资源
[D] to restructure 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 Beers has made changes on its development stratege because_____.4. De Beers 改变了自己的发展战略因为_____。
[A] it plans to 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 wants to 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] it switches 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 wants to turn around the loss-making mines by cooperating with companies of smaller size[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 future of 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。