When all your cOStS are risin9，and consumers are losing interest in your products，it is time for drastic measures．So Kraft Foods，which was already engaged in a round of COSt cuttin9，unveiled another package of redundancies and plant closings on January 30th．
More cuts certainly must be part of the solution for Kraft．The company’s margins have fallen sharply as costs have risen for everything from the ingredients it uses to the fuel it needs for processin9， packaging and distributing its foods．①Since it cannot do much about those，Kraft will instead cut labour and capital COSTS．The company will shed another 8，000 jobs by 2008，on top of the 5，500 that it is already in the middle of cuttin9．That l3％workforce reduction will coincide with the closure of 39 plants--twice the number that Kraft originally planned to shut．
In total，Kraft’s restructuring will now cOSt$3．7 billion，three times as much as the modest version it first planned．But its managers hope to achieve lon9—term savings of$1．1 5 billion a year． Investors，looking ahead as ever，were pleased by the news．Kraft’s shares rallied，even as its chief executive，Roger Deromedi，said that he expected input cOstS would．remain high in 2006．
Kraft must also find a way，however，to pass on higher COSTS tO its customers．Many of its branded goods，such as packaged meats and cheese products，are under pressure from own-label brands，produced by big supermarkets．Anybody can pre-slice cheese and encase it in plastic．So Kraft，as everyone knows and Mr Deromedi concedes，will have to innovate．But should the company trot out lots of new food lines，or keep improving its existing ones to differentiate them a bit?④
An established packaged-foods conglomerate such as Kraft tends to be better at incremental improvement than at risky investments in new brands．There is a danger，however，that relying on gradual progress will not be enough to persuade consumers to pay more for Kraft’s products，when a similar—looking generic rival is flashing its seductive price tag on the same shelf．“Pricing is transparent， value is opaque”，says Dipak Jain，a marketing professor and the dean of Northwestern University’s Kellogg business school．By contrast，new products，such as organic or ethnic food，offer the prospect of better growth and margins but would require Kraft to take bigger gambles．
So far，Kraft has been combining the two strategies，but at a modest pace．For example，it made its macaroni and cheese an American family staple a little healthier by rolling out a whole-grain version I but it also launched a new“South Beach Diet”line of healthier foods．Kraft now needs to be bolder on both fronts．考試大[451 words]
1．Kraft will take some drastic measures to______．
A．close plants
B．cut more jobs
C．improve its products
D．package redundancies
2．The measures to be taken by Kraft willinclude the reduction of______．
A．the jobs it provides
B．the ingredients it uses
C．the fuelit needs
D．its existing lines of products
3．It seems that the measures taken by Kraft are______．
A．the modest version among those it has ever had
B．much more radical than those planned originaIly
C．beyond the expectation of its investors
D．what its managers have been looking forward to
4．Which of the following might contribute most to Kraft’s success?
A．Relying on innovation．
B．Improving existing food lines．
C．Developing more new food lines．
D．Passing on higher costs to its customers．
5．The“South Beach Diet”1ine of foods is used to illustrate that Kraft______．
A．is ambitious to develop healthier foods
B．has lost its confidence on existing lines of foods
C．no longer relies on improving its existing products
D．a(chǎn)ttempts to develop by means of more strategies
超綱詞匯
Rally vi．(行情、價(jià)格等)跌后復(fù)升
encase vt．把…裝入箱
Opaque ．不透明的，不傳熱的，遲鈍的
ingredient n．成分，因素
Staple n．廚房中常備的食品
roll Out大量生產(chǎn)，滾出
Conglomerate n．集團(tuán)企業(yè)，聯(lián)合大企業(yè)
shed vt．流出，脫出，卸掉，放棄
Concede vt．勉強(qiáng)，承認(rèn)，退讓
Generic adj．普通的，同屬的
slice 切片
Ethnic adj．人種的，種族的，異教徒的
redundancy n．冗余
Unveil vt．使公之于眾，揭開，揭幕，除去…的面紗
Macaroni n．通心粉
Transparent 透明的，顯然的，明晰的
line n．新品種
trot out炫耀，使跑給人看，提出…供考慮
coincide vi．一致，符合
seductive adj．引誘的，有魅力的
margin n．盈余，利潤，毛額
incremental adj．增加的，逐漸增長的，遞增的
More cuts certainly must be part of the solution for Kraft．The company’s margins have fallen sharply as costs have risen for everything from the ingredients it uses to the fuel it needs for processin9， packaging and distributing its foods．①Since it cannot do much about those，Kraft will instead cut labour and capital COSTS．The company will shed another 8，000 jobs by 2008，on top of the 5，500 that it is already in the middle of cuttin9．That l3％workforce reduction will coincide with the closure of 39 plants--twice the number that Kraft originally planned to shut．
In total，Kraft’s restructuring will now cOSt$3．7 billion，three times as much as the modest version it first planned．But its managers hope to achieve lon9—term savings of$1．1 5 billion a year． Investors，looking ahead as ever，were pleased by the news．Kraft’s shares rallied，even as its chief executive，Roger Deromedi，said that he expected input cOstS would．remain high in 2006．
Kraft must also find a way，however，to pass on higher COSTS tO its customers．Many of its branded goods，such as packaged meats and cheese products，are under pressure from own-label brands，produced by big supermarkets．Anybody can pre-slice cheese and encase it in plastic．So Kraft，as everyone knows and Mr Deromedi concedes，will have to innovate．But should the company trot out lots of new food lines，or keep improving its existing ones to differentiate them a bit?④
An established packaged-foods conglomerate such as Kraft tends to be better at incremental improvement than at risky investments in new brands．There is a danger，however，that relying on gradual progress will not be enough to persuade consumers to pay more for Kraft’s products，when a similar—looking generic rival is flashing its seductive price tag on the same shelf．“Pricing is transparent， value is opaque”，says Dipak Jain，a marketing professor and the dean of Northwestern University’s Kellogg business school．By contrast，new products，such as organic or ethnic food，offer the prospect of better growth and margins but would require Kraft to take bigger gambles．
So far，Kraft has been combining the two strategies，but at a modest pace．For example，it made its macaroni and cheese an American family staple a little healthier by rolling out a whole-grain version I but it also launched a new“South Beach Diet”line of healthier foods．Kraft now needs to be bolder on both fronts．考試大[451 words]
1．Kraft will take some drastic measures to______．
A．close plants
B．cut more jobs
C．improve its products
D．package redundancies
2．The measures to be taken by Kraft willinclude the reduction of______．
A．the jobs it provides
B．the ingredients it uses
C．the fuelit needs
D．its existing lines of products
3．It seems that the measures taken by Kraft are______．
A．the modest version among those it has ever had
B．much more radical than those planned originaIly
C．beyond the expectation of its investors
D．what its managers have been looking forward to
4．Which of the following might contribute most to Kraft’s success?
A．Relying on innovation．
B．Improving existing food lines．
C．Developing more new food lines．
D．Passing on higher costs to its customers．
5．The“South Beach Diet”1ine of foods is used to illustrate that Kraft______．
A．is ambitious to develop healthier foods
B．has lost its confidence on existing lines of foods
C．no longer relies on improving its existing products
D．a(chǎn)ttempts to develop by means of more strategies
超綱詞匯
Rally vi．(行情、價(jià)格等)跌后復(fù)升
encase vt．把…裝入箱
Opaque ．不透明的，不傳熱的，遲鈍的
ingredient n．成分，因素
Staple n．廚房中常備的食品
roll Out大量生產(chǎn)，滾出
Conglomerate n．集團(tuán)企業(yè)，聯(lián)合大企業(yè)
shed vt．流出，脫出，卸掉，放棄
Concede vt．勉強(qiáng)，承認(rèn)，退讓
Generic adj．普通的，同屬的
slice 切片
Ethnic adj．人種的，種族的，異教徒的
redundancy n．冗余
Unveil vt．使公之于眾，揭開，揭幕，除去…的面紗
Macaroni n．通心粉
Transparent 透明的，顯然的，明晰的
line n．新品種
trot out炫耀，使跑給人看，提出…供考慮
coincide vi．一致，符合
seductive adj．引誘的，有魅力的
margin n．盈余，利潤，毛額
incremental adj．增加的，逐漸增長的，遞增的