新東方優美背誦短文50篇 Unit35:Oil Refining

35.Oil Refining

An important new industry, oil refining, grew after the Civil war. Crude oil, or petroleum – a dark, thick ooze from the earth – had been known for hundreds of years, but little use had ever been made of it. In the 1850’s Samuel M. Kier, a manufacturer in western Pennsylvania, began collecting the oil from local seepages and refining it into kerosene. Refining, like smelting, is a process of removing impurities from a raw material.

Kerosene was used to light lamps. It was a cheap substitute for whale oil, which was becoming harder to get. Soon there was a large demand for kerosene. People began to search for new supplies of petroleum.

The first oil well was drilled by E.L. Drake, a retired railroad conductor. In 1859 he began drilling in Titusville, Pennsylvania. The whole venture seemed so impractical and foolish that onlookers called it “ Drake’s Folly”. But when he had drilled down about 70 feet(21 meters), Drake struck oil. His well began to yield 20 barrels of crude oil a day.

News of Drake’s success brought oil prospectors to the scene. By the early 1860’s these wildcatters were drilling for “ black gold” all over western Pennsylvania. The boom rivaled the California gold rush of 1848 in its excitement and Wild West atmosphere. And it brought far more wealth to the prospectors than any gold rush.

Crude oil could be refined into many products. For some years kerosene continued to be the principal one. It was sold in grocery stores and door-to-door. In the 1880’s refiners learned how to make other petroleum products such as waxes and lubricating oils. Petroleum was not then used to make gasoline or heating oil.

煉油
一種重要的新興工業--煉油業在國內戰爭后成長起來。未加工的石油，或原油--一種深色的地下的稠漿--數百年來一直為大眾所知，但是人們卻很少使用過它。
在十九世紀五十年代，薩繆爾?M?科爾，賓西法尼亞西部的一位制造商，開始從當地的溢出物中收集石油
并將它煉成煤油。與冶煉礦石一樣，石油提煉是一個從未加工的原料中除去雜質的過程。煤油被用來點燈。
它是鯨油的一種便宜的替代品，而鯨油正變得越來越難以獲得。不久就產生了對煤油的大量需求。人們開始尋找新的石油供應。第一口油井為
E?L?瑞克，一個退休的火車檢票員所鉆得。1859年他開始在賓西法尼亞的泰特斯維爾鉆井。整個的這項
冒險事業看起來是如此不現實和愚蠢以致旁觀者稱之為"鴨子的蠢行"。(譯者注：Drake'sFolly,drake
在這里意含雙關，即指瑞克的名字，又指該詞的本義即鴨子。)但當瑞克往下鉆至70英尺(21米)的時候，他發現了石油。他的油井從此每天生產
20桶原油。瑞克成功的消息將石油勘探者們吸引到現場。截止到19世紀60年代早期，這些冒險者為尋找"黑色的
金子"鉆探遍了整個賓西法尼亞西部。這項繁榮的事業在刺激性和粗獷的西部氣氛上可與
1848年的加州淘金熱相媲美，而且它為勘探者帶來了遠超過淘金潮的財富。原油能被提煉成許多產品。多年以來煤油一直是主要的一種產品。
它在雜貨店中出售由人挨戶推銷。19世紀八十九十年代煉油者們懂得了生產其它石油產品，如蠟和潤滑油。那時石油還沒有被
用來制造汽油或采暖裝置用油。