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  3. In the newsprint market, prices have risen by over 50％ in a matter of months. The cost of paper that feeds into presses around t

In the newsprint market, prices have risen by over 50％ in a matter of months. The cost of paper that feeds into presses around t

admin2022-12-09  107
问题     In the newsprint market, prices have risen by over 50％ in a matter of months. The cost of paper that feeds into presses around the world is rising to record highs.
    When times were good, before ads shifted online, newspapers had a supportive partnership with paper mills. As ads departed and circulations fell, newspapers and paper mills are now at the shouting stage.
    Paper mills had the worst of it for years as newspapers reduced pages, went wholly digital or shut for good. The papers were able to hammer down the cost of newsprint from firms fighting for business as demand declined. Price-taking paper mills suffered in silence. Many hesitated to shut massive machines costing hundreds of millions of dollars.
    That hesitance has disappeared; mills are taking out newsprint capacity and diversifying. Many mills are converting machines to make packaging. UPM, a Finnish firm, announced this year the sale of its Shotton newsprint mill in Wales to a Turkish maker of containerboard and packaging. For JCS Volga, a Russian mill, newsprint used to account for 70％ of production; now half of what it makes is packaging.
    The pandemic, with people working from home, meant even fewer newspaper purchases, which depressed demand for newsprint and increased the pain for paper suppliers. In the past 24 months European mills have responded by shutting almost a fifth of their newsprint capacity.
    Then economies reopened. Newsprint demand shot up. That, combined with much reduced capacity and coupled with soaring energy prices, has resulted in a price shock.
    Newspaper firms reckon this amounts to breaking contracts. European newspapers will have to pay newsprint prices that are 50％—70％ higher in the first quarter of 2022 compared with the year before. As for their counterparts in Asia and Oceania, they are facing prices around 25％ to 45％ above their usual level.
    Germany’s print and media industry association has warned that mills are going to force newspapers to dump paper editions, hurting each other in the process. But mills can sell packaging instead. "We’re not going to save the publishing industry by being unprofitable ourselves," says the executive of JCS Volga.
    For some publishers, price rises will wipe out profits. They will need to do further restructuring involving axing titles and layoffs. That will lower demand and nudge the market back towards equilibrium. But newspapers will have more hard conversations about paper. More digitization is one possible reply to the soaring prices of newsprint.
Which of the following was a contributor to the soaring price of the newsprint?
选项 A、A depressing purchase for newspaper.
B、The increased newsprint capacity.
C、A demand expansion of newsprint.
D、The fluctuation of energy prices.
答案C
解析 细节题。根据题干中的the soaring price可定位至第六段。第二、三句提到，Newsprint demand shot up. That, combined with much reduced capacity and coupled with soaring energy prices, has resulted in a price shock. (对新闻用纸的需求激增，再加上产能大幅下降以及能源价格的大幅上涨，结果是新闻用纸的价格令人震惊。)因此，C项正确。A项属于答非所问，第五段第一句提到，疫情迫使许多人在家办公，这意味着报纸的购买量更少，但并非本题答案，故排除该选项。B项属于是非混淆，新闻用纸产能大幅下降造成新闻用纸价格飙升，故排除该选项。D项属于偷换概念，文中提到导致新闻用纸价格飙升的一个因素是能源价格上涨，而不是能源价格的波动，故排除该选项。故本题答案为C项。
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