中国白酒：太难张口说爱你？
中国现在希望将白酒推向全球，除了走进酒吧作为基酒调制“荔枝马提尼”、还听说，品尝优质白酒与聆听世界级古典音乐……更配哦？
测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：
litre公升['liːtə]
boardroom会议室['bɔːdruːm; -rʊm]
ubiquitous普遍存在的；无所不在的[juː'bɪkwɪtəs]
hangover宿醉；残留物['hæŋəʊvə]
frugality俭省，节俭[fruː'gælɪtɪ]
subsidy补贴；津贴['sʌbsɪdɪ]
Philharmonia Orchestra爱乐管弦乐团
patron赞助人；保护人；主顾['peɪtr(ə)n]
virtuoso艺术大师[,vɝtʃu'oso]
cocktail鸡尾酒；开味食品['kɒkteɪl]
mixologist酒吧调酒员[mɪk'sɒlədʒɪst]
Baijiu: the people's tipple （579words）
By Christian Shepherd
Traditionally drunk straight, and in great volume, baijiu is China's national spirit: the country gets through an estimated 10-17 billion litres of the grain-based liquor every year. It is central to Chinese business deals, where the banquet table trumps the boardroom, and ubiquitous at formal dinners. It's sipped, according to toasting culture, whenever your superior asks. Calls of “Ganbei” — literally, “Dry your glass” — are common and hard to refuse.
Growing up in Beijing, I learnt about the spirit from my investor stepfather's tales of endless toasting at business banquets — and the terrible hangovers that followed. Once, after an evening with an aviation fuel company, he described the host's expensive baijiu as “bearing a distinct resemblance to his own products”.
Now China wants to take baijiu global. State-owned producers, boutique brands and large drinks corporations are all interested in the spirit's export potential. If tequila can do it, so the reasoning goes, why not baijiu?
The push to sell baijiu abroad is part of a transition in the domestic market. Through the boom years, baijiu's central role in business transactions saw sales surge with the economy. Managers of state-owned enterprises plied each other (and the relevant officials) with increasingly overpriced bottles — and billed it to the company.
But in 2012, President Xi Jinping launched a frugality campaign that banned lavish dinners and gift giving, thus cancelling the state's de facto subsidy of the industry and bringing soaring profits down to earth. Diversifying sales by moving into untapped western markets suddenly became an increasingly attractive idea.
However, with an industrial bouquet and a throat-choking 40-60 per cent alcohol content, baijiu is reviled by many foreigners who live in China. To popularise it outside of China requires imagination, not to say blind optimism.
Wuliangye, China's largest baijiu producer by volume, struck upon the novel approach of partnering with a London orchestra. About a year ago Liu Zhongguo, its chairman, signed a five-year sponsorship deal with the Philharmonia Orchestra as a way to “inspire people to enjoy the harmonious balance of drinking fabulous alcohol while listening to world-class classical music”. The £500,000 deal was signed at a Downing Street reception.
Jonathan Kuhles, who manages sponsorship for the Philharmonia, says: “Everyone [at the concerts] is very interested to try it … The longer we work with [Wuliangye], the more you get a taste for [baijiu] in a way you don't think you will originally.”
Patrons of the Philharmonia who came to hear Chinese piano virtuoso Lang Lang at the Royal Festival Hall in London last November were offered a taste of the spirit, while VIP gift bags reinforced the message. Yet samples at a reception may be insufficient to overcome the problem of differing national palates. One theory among China-dwelling foreigners is that it takes 300 shots to stop disliking baijiu. That's a lot of concerts.
In an effort to create a more stylish image, promoters of baijiu abroad are turning it into a bar drink. Baijiu-based cocktails can now be found on bar menus from Paris to Perth. For mixologist Orson Salicetti, co-founder of Lumos, a Manhattan bar specialising in the spirit, its powerful taste can be a good thing — it is the high alcohol content that is a problem. “The advantages of baijiu are the sweetness, rotting fruit and nutty sherry — you need to respect these notes,” he says. His creations use baijiu in different ways, from baijiu-infused lemongrass in his “lychee martini” to mixing it with spiced almond milk in an almond cocktail.
请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：
1.Where is better to talk business in China?
A.banquet table
B.boardroom
C.tea room
D.bureau
答案(1)
2.What is baijiu's role model on globalization?
A.fuel
B.concert
C.tequila
D.red wine
答案(2)
3.Which one of the following is China's largest baijiu producer by volume?
A.Moutai
B.Wuliangye
C.Fenjiu
D.Langjiu
答案(3)
4.What is the main problem to turn baijiu into a bar drink?
A.high alcohol content
B.the sweetness
C.achromatic color
D.without bubbles
答案(4)
* * *
(1)答案：A.banquet table
解释：白酒在中国的生意场上有着重要地位，中国的生意往往是在酒桌上谈成的，而不是在会议室里，而且所有正式晚宴都能看到白酒的身影。
(2)答案：C.tequila
解释：中国现在希望将白酒推向全球：如果龙舌兰酒可以为全球市场接受，那么同样道理，白酒为什么不行？
(3)答案：B.Wuliangye
解释：中国以销量计最大的白酒生产商是五粮液，大约一年前，五粮液董事长刘中国与英国爱乐乐团(Philharmonia Orchestra)签署了5年赞助合同，以此“激发人们找到品尝优质白酒和聆听世界级古典音乐之间的和谐平衡”。
(4)答案：A.high alcohol content
解释：白酒的推广者们正努力在海外为其创造一个更时尚的形象，将它变成酒吧饮品。白酒强烈的味道可以是优点，但其高酒精含量是个问题。
