上外英语专业考研究试题-完型填空.doc

上 外 英 语 专 业 考 研 试 题 NEXT week Henri Proglio will become the boss of EDF Group, the state-controlled French firm which is the world’s biggest 1 utility and operator of nuclear reactors. With its proud corporate culture, its 2 to long-term planning and its powerful unions (the Confédération Générale du Travail jointly runs the firm, in effect), EDF is sometimes described as a miniature 3 of France itself. Last year it began a 4 campaign to build nuclear plants around the world. But to the dismay of advocates of a nuclear renaissance, the cost and complexity of embarking on several big projects at once is weighing on the firm, despite its size and government backing. EDF has long exported its nuclear-energy expertise, but earned only advisory fees for its efforts. It helped build China’s nuclear fleet, for example, for a few million euros. Now, as growth at home slows, it wants to make bigger 5 by building and 6 nuclear plants of its own abroad. After all, it is one of very few utilities that can 7 to build several reactors by itself, without sharing the risk with partners or governments. And in an industry which atrophied after accidents at Three Mile Island in America and Chernobyl in 8 is now Ukraine, it has relatively extensive recent experience of building and operating modern nuclear plants. Even for EDF, however, the costs are 9 . In 2008 it bought British Energy, a utility which owns eight nuclear plants, for ￡12.5 billion ($22.5 billion). Earlier this month, after a long wait for regulatory 10 , it concluded a 11 to buy half of the nuclear assets of Constellation Energy, an American utility, for $4.5 billion. On top of these acquisitions it plans to build 11 new reactors (four in Britain, four in America, two in China and one in France). It also wants to build four plants in Italy and is 12 to build several in the United Arab Emirates, as part of a consortium in both places. These investments will stretch the firm’s balance-sheet. Debt now stands at €37 b