  We show that the four-zero texture of Hermitian quark mass matrices can
survive current experimental tests: it is able to yield sufficiently large
predictions for the flavor mixing parameter $|V_{ub}/V_{cb}|$ and the
CP-violating parameter $\sin 2\beta$, without fine-tuning of the input values
of quark masses, provided the (2,2), (2,3) and (3,3) elements of up and down
mass matrices roughly satisfy a geometrical hierarchy. The successful relations
$|V_{us}| \approx \sqrt{m_u/m_c + m_d/m_s}$ and $|V_{td}/V_{ts}| \approx
\sqrt{m_d/m_s}$ obtained previously from the six-zero texture of Hermitian
quark mass matrices remain unchanged in the new ansatz.

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology