Volvo Cars reverses sales slump in 2010

    STOCKHOLM, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Volvo Cars saw plus figures in sales in 2010 after two years of decline¹, reported the Swedish Industry Daily on Friday.
    The Gothenburg(哥德堡)-based company sold 373,525 cars last year, 11.2 percent more than that of 2009. But the figure is still not at the same level as in 2008 before the crisis² hit and far from the record figure of 458,323 cars in 2007, the report said.
    Volvo Cars have lost the U.S. market and Sweden is about to overtake the U.S. as Volvo's biggest market, according to the report.
    Last year China's Geely Group purchased Volvo Cars from the U.S. Ford³ car manufacturer（制造商）. Volvo's Gothenburg factory is carrying on production in Sweden while Geely Group builds three new factories in China to produce Volvo cars for the Chinese market.(本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑)

1 decline   

n.衰微，跌落，下降；vt.使降低，婉谢；vi.下降，衰落，偏斜

参考例句：

• I must decline to show favour to any of the candidates.我必须拒绝偏袒任何一位候选人。
• The birthrate is on the decline.出生率在下降。

2 crisis   

n.危机，危急关头，决定性时刻，关键阶段

参考例句：

• He had proved that he could be relied on in a crisis.他已表明，在紧要关头他是可以信赖的。
• The topic today centers about the crisis in the Middle East.今天课题的中心是中东危机。

3 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。