美国英语听力80篇4 Lesson69

[00:06.87]OPEC,the Organization of Petroleum¹ Exporting Countries agreed
[00:13.30]this week to increase oil production.
[00:17.42]The increase is aimed at lowering oil prices,
[00:22.15]which went up after OPEC and several other nations cut production last year
[00:29.49]The OPEC agreement is expected to add 1.7 million barrels of oil a day.
[00:37.62]That would increase oil supplies more than seven percent.
[00:44.15]Nine of the eleven OPEC members agreedd
[00:49.40]to the increase at a meeting in Vienna.
[00:53.52]Iraq is not involved in the plan
[00:58.04]because of its separate Unigted Nations oil-for-food program.
[01:04.08]Iran at first refused to take part in the increase
[01:09.83]to protest American pressure on OPEC.
[01:14.16]However,later Iran said it would also agree to increase production.
[01:21.37]Iran is the second largest OPEC producer,after Saudi Arabia.
[01:28.42]The United States is OPEC's largest market.
[01:34.17]The Clinton administration had called for increases of up
[01:39.60]to 2.5 million barrels a day to reduce high gasoline prices.
[01:46.37]American lawmakers were threatening to punish OPEC
[01:51.73]if it did not raise production.
[01:55.67]Some non-OPEC members also plan to increase oil production.
[02:02.49]Mexico will produce 150,000 barrels a day more,beginning saturday
[02:10.72]Norway has also agreed to increase production.
[02:15.73]And Venezuela said Friday that within a month
[02:20.98]it will increase production by 125,000 barrels a day.
[02:28.19]The OPEC ministers agreed to a Venezuelan proposal
[02:34.04]for a system of quick supply changes
[02:38.09]to keep prices from rising or falling too much.
[02:43.06]At their meeting in Vienna they also elected Venezuela's Oil
[02:49.30]Minister Ali Rodriguez as the new president of OPEC.
[02:55.05]Mister rodriguez says OPEC will try to keep oil prices
[03:01.81]between twenty-two dollars and twenty-eight dollars a barrel.
[03:07.25]This past Monday,oil prices at the New York Mercantile Exchange
[03:14.30]closed at almost twenty-four dollars a barrel.
[03:19.55]This is the highest since the Persian Gulf² War nine years ago
[03:25.98]after Iraq invaded Kuwait.
[03:29.82]But on Thursday,after the OPEC members agreed to increase production,
[03:37.26]the price of oil fell below twenty-five dollars a barrel.
[03:43.29]President Clinton urged American oil companies to use the savings³
[03:48.83]to lower gasoline prices for the public.
[03:53.17]Economists say high oil prices can cause inflation⁴
[03:59.41]and hurt the economies of many nations.
[04:03.75]OPEC supplies more than one-third of the world's oil.
[04:09.18]Oil industry experts say it will be at least six
[04:15.50]to eight weeks before the increased production reaches the public.
[04:21.15]Some experts,however,question if the production increase
[04:27.18]will be enough to satisfy the demand and hold prices down.
[04:33.03]They note that many OPEC members already cheat on their production limits
[04:40.19]by selling more oil than they are permitted.
[04:44.63]OPEC ministers will meet again in June to study the effects of the increase

1 petroleum   

n.原油，石油

参考例句：

• The Government of Iran advanced the price of petroleum last week.上星期伊朗政府提高了石油价格。
• The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。

2 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

3 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

4 inflation   

n.胀大，夸张，通货膨胀

参考例句：

• Gold prices are often seen as an indicator of inflation.黃金价格常常被看作是通货膨胀的指标。
• The inflation of the airbed took several minutes.给空气床垫充气花了几分钟时间。