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  3. When Arsenal, an English football club, took on Reading in 2007, the cover o

When Arsenal, an English football club, took on Reading in 2007, the cover o

游客2023-12-10  60
问题     When Arsenal, an English football club, took on Reading in 2007, the cover of the official program featured Theo Walcott, a young football player known for his speed. A copy is on display near the town of Bhig-wan in the Indian state of Maharashtra, in a factory belonging to Ballarpur Industries Limited(BILT). It is India’s biggest maker of writing and printing paper, including the glossy stock that Arsenal supporters browse before kick-off.
    BILT is part of the Avantha Group, a corporation headed by Gautam Thapar that spans agribusiness, power and manufacturing, among other things. The group has grown at a pace that would shame Mr. Walcott, earning revenues of about $4 billion in 2009, compared with $1 billion in 2003. It provides one example of how corporate India might evolve, as it globalizes its operations, professionalizes its management and modernizes its technologies, while remaining a family corporation.
    The group was founded in the 1920s by Karam Chand Thapar, who passed it on to his son, Lalit Mohan. Like many family corporations, it split in its third generation. But it split amicably, leaving Mr. Thapar with the lion’s share of the businesses. Other corporate siblings squabble over the family name. Mr. Thapar dropped it, rebranding the group "Avantha" in 2007.
    Mr. Thapar cites a European tradition, where the heirs to family businesses first go off to try their luck elsewhere, before returning to the family fold. By accident, if not by design, he enjoyed a similar upbringing.
    As the second son of Lalit Mohan’s brother, Gautam grew up "twice removed from any position of inheritance."
    That was probably just as well. Sudhir Trehan, who runs Crompton Greaves, Avantha’s electrical equipment-maker, jokes that when he joined as a trainee in 1972, the management would not drink tea unless it were served with white gloves from a silver pot. That complacent culture could not survive the less sheltered economy of the 1990s. Mr. Thapar became boss of BILT after steering it clear of bankruptcy in the latter half of that decade. Thereafter his uncle left him free to get on with it. Mr. Thapar cultivates a similar relationship with those who work for him, giving promising young executives responsibility for smaller units early on, so they can make their mistakes before the stakes get too big. "You actually believe it’s your company," says Vineet Chhabra, head of Global Green, a subsidiary which exports foods to 50 countries.
    One advantage of a corporation is that it allows the ambitious to graduate from one company to another without leaving the group. When Mr. Chhabra began to feel irritated by Global Green’s small scale, he was given that option. But instead he chose to turn Global Green into the bigger company he wanted to run. With the group’s backing, it acquired Intergarden, a Belgian company three times its size. The purchase illustrates another advantage of the corporation: it gives units access to finance they could not raise on their own.
    Indian companies typically buy firms abroad to secure materials, markets, or technologies. Avantha has gone in search of all three. Intergarden, for example, gave Global Green valuable customer relationships. BILT bought a Malaysian firm to gain access to its timber. Crompton Greaves wanted Pauwels, a Belgian company, mainly for its know-how.
    Mr. Thapar is unusual among Indian businessmen in seeking inspiration(as well as acquisitions and markets)in continental Europe. In both Europe and India, he points out, the state remains a big owner of enterprise, the capital markets have yet to supersede banks as a source of corporate finance, and share ownership is often concentrated in family hands. Even the group’s new name is an unlikely mix of Indian and European. It evokes both the Sanskrit for "strong foundations" and the French for "advance"— a combination worth trading the family name for. [br] Why does the author say in the second paragraph "The group has grown at a pace that would shame Mr. Walcott..."?
选项 A、Because the group has gone bankrupt.
B、Because such events would never happen again.
C、Because Mr. Walcott didn’t play well afterward.
D、Because the group developed at an unbelievable speed.
答案 D
解析 句意理解题。据第1段首句可知，Theo Walcott是一个以速度出名的足球员，第2段第2句描述Avantha集团能让这一球员感到羞愧，而其后则以数据表明集团利润的飞跃，故可以推断这一集团是以其发展速度使Walcott羞愧，故D符合题意。
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