2. 外语
  3. Ricci’s "Operation Columbus" 1 Ricci, 45, is now striking out on perhaps his boldest venture yet. He plans to market an Engl

Ricci’s "Operation Columbus" 1 Ricci, 45, is now striking out on perhaps his boldest venture yet. He plans to market an Engl

admin2008-12-13  25
问题                                      Ricci’s "Operation Columbus"
1     Ricci, 45, is now striking out on perhaps his boldest venture yet. He plans to market an English-language edition of his elegant monthly art magazine, FMR, in the United States. Once again the skeptics are murmuring that the successful Ricci has headed for a big fall. And once again Ricci intends to prove them wrong.
2     Ricci is so confident that he has christen quest "Operation Columbus" and has set his sights on discovering an American readership of 300,000. That goal may not be too far-fetched. The Italian edition of FMR — the initials, of course, stand for Franco Maria Ricci— is only 18 months old. But it is already the second largest art magazine in the world, with a circulation of 65,000 and a profit margin of US $ 500,000. The American edition will be patterned after the Italian version, with each 160-page issue carrying only 40 pages of ads and no more than five articles. But the contents will often differ. The English-language edition will include more American works, Ricci says, to help Americans get over "an inferiority complex about their art". He also hopes that the magazine will become a vehicle for a two-way cultural exchange — what he likes to think of as a marriage of brains, culture and taste from both sides of the Atlantic.
3     To realize this version, Ricci is mounting one of the most lavish, enterprising — and expensive promotional campaigns in magazine-publishing history.  Between November and January, eight jumbo jets will fly 8 million copies of a sample 16-page edition of FMR across the Atlantic. From a warehouse in Michigan, 6.5 million copies will be mailed to American subscribers of various cultural, art and business magazines. Some of the remaining copies will circulate as a special Sunday supplement in the New York Times. The cost of launching Operation Columbus is a staggering US $ 5 million, but Ricci is hoping that 600% of the price tag will be financed by Italian corporations.  "To land in America Columbus had to use Spanish sponsors," reads one sentence in his promotional pamphlet.  "We would like Italians."
4     Like Columbus, Ricci cannot know what his reception, will be on foreign shores. In Italy he gambled — and won — on a simple concept: it is more important to show art than to write about it. Hence, one issue of FMR might feature 32 full-colour pages of 17th-century tapestries, followed by 14 pages of outrageous eyeglasses. He is gambling that the concept is exportable. "I don’t expect that more than 30% of my readers.., will actually read FMR," he says. "The magazine is such a visual delight that they don’t have to. "Still, he is lining up an impressive stable of writers and professors for the American edition, including Noam Chomsky, Anthony Burgess, Eric Jong and Norman Mailer. In addition, he seems to be pursuing his own eclectic vision without giving a moment’s thought to such established competitors as Connosisseur and Horizon. "The Americans can do almost everything better than we can, "says Ricci," But we (the Italians) have a 2,000 year edge on them in art."
选项 A、boost Americans’ confidence in their art.
B、follow the pattern set by his Italian edition.
C、help Italians understand American art better.
D、expand the readership of his magazine.
答案A
解析 <1>Operation Columbus“哥伦布行动”。operation这个词用作大写时，常为某行动代号名的一部分，表示“行动计划”。例如，Operation Overload指“霸王计划”，即第二次世界大战中由美国制订的从西部进攻欧洲的军事计划的代号，该计划的目标于 1944年6月6日实施。
<2>strike out(On)独立闯新路，开辟(道路等)
<3>christen本意为“(施洗礼时)给……命名”，用在此处说明Ricci自认为到美国开拓市场是一项很伟大的工作。
<4>inferiority complex自卑情结
<5>staggering(数目)巨大的，大得惊人的
<6>line up an impressive stable of writers and professors line up表示“组织”、“邀集”。 stable这里表示“受同一人(或机构)经营的人(如运动员、演员等)”。
<7>have an edge on sb．对某人有优势，占某人的上风

此题为细节理解题。依据第2段中间一句：The English-language edition will include more American works，Ricci says，to help Americans get over“an inferiority complex about their art”。inferiority complex表示“自卑情结”，即缺乏自信。
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