VOA慢速英语20060818a

ECONOMICS¹ REPORT - Indra Nooyi to Lead PepsiCoBy Jill Moss²

Broadcast: Friday, August 18, 2006

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.


Indra Nooyi

PepsiCo this week named Indra Nooyi to become its chief executive³ officer in October. The food and drink company is the world's second-largest soft drink maker⁴, behind Coca-Cola. Miz Nooyi will join just ten other women as CEOs among the five hundred largest companies in the United States.

The fifty-year-old executive was born and raised in India; she sometimes wears a traditional sari at events.

She came to the United States in nineteen seventy-eight. She has graduate business degrees from Yale University and the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta.

Indra Nooyi started with PepsiCo twelve years ago. She led negotiations⁵ for the purchase of Quaker Oats and also helped the company buy juice maker Tropicana.

She became president and chief financial officer of PepsiCo in two thousand one. Now she will replace Steve Reinemund who has led the company since that time. He is retiring. Under his leadership PepsiCo passed Coca-Cola last year in stock market value.

PepsiCo had sales last year of almost thirty-three thousand million dollars.

Miz Nooyi is the latest in a growing number of foreign-born executives⁶ to lead international companies based in the United States. It appears her climb has not been affected⁷ by a graduation speech she gave last year at the Columbia Business School in New York. Her statements offended some people. She talked about the United States as the long middle finger on a hand representing different parts of the world. Critics said she insulted the United States. PepsiCo offered an apology.

PepsiCo has been expanding its foreign markets. But a dispute in her own homeland could serve as the first test for Indra Nooyi as chief executive.

A group in New Delhi says PepsiCo and Coca-Cola are misleading people about the safety of their soft drinks in India. The Center for Science and Environment recently tested different drinks made by the two companies. It says the tests found high levels of pesticides⁸ in all fifty-seven bottles collected nationwide.

Insect poisons used on farms and in homes can enter groundwater.

PepsiCo and Coca-Cola say their products are safe and meet Indian and international health rules.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Jill Moss. You can read and listen to archives of our reports at www.unsv.com. I'm Faith Lapidus.

1 economics   

n.经济学，经济情况

参考例句：

• He is studying economics,which subject is very important.他正在学习经济学，该学科是很重要的。
• One can't separate politics from economics.不能把政治与经济割裂开来。

2 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。

3 executive   

adj.执行的，行政的；n.执行者，行政官，经理

参考例句：

• A good executive usually gets on well with people.一个好的高级管理人员通常与人们相处得很好。
• He is a man of great executive ability.他是个具有极高管理能力的人。

4 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

5 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

6 executives   

（公司或机构的）经理( executive的名词复数 )； （统称公司或机构的）行政领导； （政府的）行政部门； [the Executive][美国英语]（美国政府的）行政当局

参考例句：

• They have taken measures to equate the salaries of higher civil servants to those of business executives. 他们采取措施使高级文职人员的工资和企业管理干部的工资相等。
• He disregarded the advice of his executives. 他对主管层的建议置若罔闻。

7 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

8 pesticides   

n.杀虫剂( pesticide的名词复数 )；除害药物

参考例句：

• vegetables grown without the use of pesticides 未用杀虫剂种植的蔬菜
• There is a lot of concern over the amount of herbicides and pesticides used in farming. 人们对农业上灭草剂和杀虫剂的用量非常担忧。 来自《简明英汉词典》