王晓波 整理

也许看了“玛氏收购箭牌”这个标题你还没什么感觉，但稍微了解一下这两家公司下属的品牌，会觉得有些兴奋。

玛氏主要产品：德芙Dove、士力架Snickers、M&M、彩虹糖Skittles、宝路Pedigree、伟嘉Whiskas；箭牌旗下产品包括绿箭Doublemint、益达Extra等。

摘一段和讯网的文字：“业内人士表示，玛氏在收购箭牌后，在糖果市场的份额为14.4%，可望与巧克力制造商好时（Hershey’s）和全球最大糖果制造商英国吉百利（Cadbury）公司一较高下，这是玛氏在公司97年历史上规模最大的一笔并购交易。同时，由于牛奶和食糖的价格上涨，竞争较为激烈，如果玛氏与箭牌合并，好时和吉百利也可能被迫考虑联手。”

先完成精听作业，再讨论吃巧克力的问题。
精听：起始If you own…到1分30秒 …separate entities.
If you own shares in the chewing gum giant Wrigley’s, this is a whoopee day for you. Because shares soared after the world’s biggest candy seller Mars said that it is buying Wrigley’s. The purchase promises to have a lot of effects. Marketplace’s Sam Eaton joins us. Now, Sam gives us the significance on this buyout. Would you please? (whoppee一词口语中用于表达兴奋之情，顺便可以背一个jubilance，“喜形于色”的感觉。注意buyout的读音。)
 
Well, Alex, it really changes the game in the candy industry. I mean here you have a global chocolate powerhouse, Mars, paying about 23 billion dollars for the world’s number one chewing gum maker Wrigley’s. That’s an enormous and enormous premium over Friday’s closing price for Wrigley’s stock, which is why we’re seeing such a surge in buying today. I spoke with industry consultant Elizabeth Echandia and she says together these two merged companies create a global behemoth with a powerful suite of products. (powerhouse一词的用法大家可以再查一下，印象中是拼成一个字的。以前玩足球经理，形容维耶里这样的强力中锋，就用powerhouse. 记者咽口水的声音让人忍俊不禁。Behemoth，史前巨兽，玩过“英雄无敌”的都该知道“比蒙”，就这个东西。)
 
“They have everything from, you know, kids’ iconic brands to, you know, really old sort of brands like whether it be the Wrigley’s Juicy Fruits and the Snickers and those kinds of things. So they really do run the gamut. Every segment of the population can be served with a confectionary by this company.” (run the gamut可以算是这段比较有新意的词组，gamut本意为“全音阶”，run the gamut of…，涉及到方方面面。查了一下gamut的起源，中世纪表示音阶的一种方法， gamut being a contraction of gamma and ut, the lowest and highest notes respectively)
 
And now that, of course, gives the combined company a lot more influence with the retailers since it basically becomes a one-stop shop for every candy category. It’s also the joining of two iconic American companies: Mars is still family-owned; Wrigley’s is publicly-traded, uh, but family-controlled. That means the similar cultures of the two corporations will also meld well, even though they’ll remain separate entities.

本文相关听力音频载于昂立精英教师博客：blog.onlycollege.com.cn/wangxiaobo