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

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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.
The executive of JCS Volga’s words show that________.

选项 A、packaging can bring many profits to paper mills
B、newsprint prices are expected to be raised further
C、the publishing industry has little chance of surviving
D、paper mills are unwilling to cut newsprint prices

答案D

解析 观点题。根据题干中的JCS Volga可定位至第八段。第三句中JCS Volga造纸厂的主管说We’re not going to save the publishing industry by being unprofitable ourselves(我们不会为了拯救出版业而让自己不盈利),由此可知,造纸厂不愿意降低新闻用纸价格让自己亏本,故D项正确。A项属于无中生有,该主管这句话只谈到造纸厂对出版业的态度,并未涉及包装业务,故排除该选项。B项属于过度推理,造纸厂不愿意降低新闻用纸价格,但并不表明其价格就会继续上涨,故排除该选项。C项属于主观臆断,造纸厂不下调用纸价格也不意味着出版行业的生存希望渺茫,故排除该选项。故本题答案为D。
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