評(píng)論
打印
四級(jí)詞匯練習(xí)：Is there enough oil
Is there enough oil beneath the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to help secure America’s energy future ? President Bush certainly thinks so. He has argued that tapping ANWR’s oil would help ease California’s electricity crisis and provide a major boost to the country’s energy independence. But no one knows for sure how much crude oil lies buried beneath the frozen earth. With the last government survey, conducted in 1998, projecting output anywhere from 3 billion to 16 billion barrels.
The oil industry goes with the high end of the range, which could equal as much as 10% of U.S. consumption for as long as six years. By pumping more than 1 million barrels a day from the reserve for the next two three decades, lobbyists claim, the nation could cut back on imports equivalent to all shipments to the U.S. from Saudi Arabia. Sounds good. An oil boom would also mean a multibillion?dollar windfall in tax revenues, royalties and leasing fees for Alaska and the Federal Government. Best of all, advocates of drilling say, damage to the environment would be insignificant. “We’ve never had a document case of oil rig chasing deer out onto the pack ice.” says Alaska State Representative Scott Ogan.
Not so far, say environmentalists. Sticking to the low end of government estimates, the National Resources Defense Council says there may be no more than 3.2 billion barrels of economically recoverable oil in the coastal plain of ANWR, a drop in the bucket that would do virtually nothing to ease America’s energy problems.
在北極國家野生動(dòng)物保護(hù)區(qū)(ANWR)的土地下是否有足夠的石油來確保美國未來的能源安全？布什總統(tǒng)認(rèn)為肯定有。他聲稱北極國家野生動(dòng)物保護(hù)區(qū)(ANWR)的石油將有助于緩解加州的電力危機(jī)并能減少美國對(duì)國外石油的依賴。但幾乎沒人知道在這塊冰封的土地下究竟有多少原油。據(jù)1998年政府所做的 最新查勘，那里有30億到160億桶原油儲(chǔ)量。
石油業(yè)也隨聲附和政府報(bào)告的樂觀看法，他們認(rèn)為這些石油可以供給美國六年中所需石油總量的10%。游說者們宣稱，如果每天在保護(hù)區(qū)內(nèi)開采一百萬桶原油，美國就可減少從沙特阿拉伯進(jìn)口同樣數(shù)量的石油。聽起來還不錯(cuò)吧！石油業(yè)的突然繁榮意味著數(shù)十億美元稅收和開采費(fèi)用，同時(shí)阿拉斯加和聯(lián)邦政府也可得到數(shù)額龐大的租金。鉆井取油的倡議者認(rèn)為，鉆探并不會(huì)給當(dāng)?shù)厣鷳B(tài)環(huán)境造成嚴(yán)重的影響。來自阿拉斯加州的眾議員斯科特·奧岡就說：“我們從未聽說輸油管能將馴鹿逐出其棲息地?！?BR> 環(huán)保主義者卻認(rèn)為，事實(shí)并非如此。他們對(duì)政府的評(píng)估報(bào)告持不同意見。國家能源安全委員會(huì)認(rèn)為，在國家野生動(dòng)物保護(hù)區(qū)(ANWR)海岸邊的平原上最多只有32億桶經(jīng)濟(jì)上可開發(fā)的原油。這根本無法緩解美國所面臨的能源問題。 And consumers would wait up to a decade to gain any benefits, because drilling could begin only after much bargaining over leases, environmental permits and regulatory review. As for ANWR’s impact on the California power crisis, environmentalists point out that oil is responsible for only 1% of the Golden State’s electricity output — and just 3% of the nation’s.【2005年6月】
而且，消費(fèi)者要等上十年才能用上產(chǎn)自那里的石油。因?yàn)?，須得?jīng)過多輪有關(guān)租金的討價(jià)還價(jià)及環(huán)境勘測和法定審查后才能鉆井取油。針對(duì)北極國家野生動(dòng)物保護(hù)區(qū)(ANWR)的石油能否緩解加州的能源危機(jī)這一說法，環(huán)保主義者指出，北極國家野生動(dòng)物保護(hù)區(qū)(ANWR)的石油僅能為加利福尼亞州供應(yīng)其所需電力的1%；就對(duì)全美國而言，這一數(shù)字也僅為3%。
1. What does President Bush think of tapping oil in ANWR ?
A)It will exhaust the nation’s oil reserves.
B)It will help secure the future of ANWR.
C)It will help reduce the nation’s oil imports.
D)It will increase America’s energy consumption.
2. We learn from the second paragraph that the American oil industry.
A)believes that drilling for oil in ANWR will produce high yields
B)tends to exaggerate America’s reliance on foreign oil
C)shows little interest in tapping oil in ANWR
D)expects to stop oil imports from Saudi Arabia
3. Those against oil drilling in ANWR argue that.
A)it can cause serious damage to the environment
B)it can do little to solve U.S. energy problems
C)it will drain the oil reserves in the Alaskan region
D)it will not have much commercial value
4. What do the environmentalists mean by saying “Not so fast” (Line 1, Para.3)?
A)Oil exploitation takes a long time.
B)The oil drilling should be delayed.
C)Don’t be too optimistic.
D)Don’t expect fast returns.
5. It can be learned from the passage that oil exploitation beneath ANWR’s frozen earth.
A)remains a controversial issue
B)is expected to get under way soon
C)involves a lot of technological problems
D)will enable the U.S. to be oil independent
n. 避難(處), 庇護(hù)(所)
v. 庇護(hù)，避
