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  3. March 17th is St Patrick’s day, a celebration of all things Irish — and of one thing in particular. Around Ireland and all over

March 17th is St Patrick’s day, a celebration of all things Irish — and of one thing in particular. Around Ireland and all over

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问题     March 17th is St Patrick’s day, a celebration of all things Irish — and of one thing in particular. Around Ireland and all over the world people will celebrate with a pint or two (or three, or four) of Guinness, Ireland’s unofficial national intoxicant (酒类饮料). Publicans love St Patrick’s day, so much so that it can sometimes feel like less a celebration of Irish culture than a marketing event for Guinness’s owner, Diageo. Now exported to more than 120 countries, the black stuff has become a powerful symbol of Ireland. But how Irish is it really?
    Arthur Guinness, who founded the brewery in Dublin in 1759, might have been surprised that his drink would one day become such a potent national symbol. He was a committed unionist and opponent of Irish nationalism, who before the Irish Rebellion of 1798 was even accused of spying for the British authorities. His descendants continued passionately to support unionism — one giving the Ulster Volunteer Force ￡10,000 in 1913 (about ￡lm, or $1.7m, in today’s money) to fund a paramilitary campaign to resist Ireland being given legislative independence. The company was alleged to have lent men and equipment to the British army to help crush Irish rebels during the Easter Rising of 1916, afterwards firing members of staff whom it believed to have Irish-nationalist sympathies.
    The beer the company has become most famous for — porter stout — was based on a London ale, a favorite of the street porters of Covent Garden [(科芬园) (伦敦中部一个蔬菜花卉市场)] and Billingsgate markets. Since 1886 the firm has floated on the London Stock Exchange, and the company moved its headquarters to London in 1932, where it has been based ever since (it merged with Grand Metropolitan and renamed itself Diageo in 1997). Even in terms of branding, the company was considering disassociating itself from its Irish reputation as recently as the 1980s.
    Worried about the impact on sales of the IRA’s terrorist campaign during the Troubles, Guinness came close in 1982 to re-launching the brand as an English beer brewed in west London. But as Northern Ireland’s situation improved in the 1990s, the company’s marketing strategy changed again towards marketing the beer as Irish, aiming its product at tourists in Ireland and the estimated 70m people of Irish descent living around the world. Now the Guinness Storehouse, part of the original Dublin factory which was reopened as a tourist attraction in 2000, promotes Guinness to tourists as an Irish beer once again.
    Guinness is not the only company to play up or hide its national origins to try and boost sales. Jacob’s biscuits have been marketed by some shops as being British, in spite of the company’s origins as an Irish company from Waterford. And Lipton now markets its black teas on the strength of the company’s British origins, in over 100 countries — except Britain, where it is not commonly sold. In a world where multinational companies control a large chunk of the global food supply chain, national identity — at least in branding — matters as much as ever.
Why did Guinness come close in 1982?
选项 A、Because the situation in Northern Ireland that time was grim.
B、Because it is illegal according to the Ireland’s law.
C、Because it would be reopened as a tourist attraction before long.
D、Because it passionately supported the British army during the Easter Rising.
答案A
解析 第4段首句提到，由于担心北爱尔兰问题中爱尔兰共和军的恐怖行动会对酒的销售产生影响，健力士公司于1982年停业……。因此，其停业的原因是由于北爱尔兰的形势不好，A)与此同义，故为答案。原文并未提到健力士公司不合法，这也不是其1982年停业的原因，B)错误。第4段末句提到健力士啤酒厂于2000年重新作为一个旅游景点对外开放，但并未说这是其1982年停业的原因，C)错误。第2段末句提到健力士公司被指控在1916年复活节起义期间支持英军，但并未说这是其1982年停业的原因，D)错误。
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