Turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa in the past few months has driven the price of oil on the world market to more than $100 a barrel, causing a spike in fuel prices in the United States that is putting a crimp in transportation budgets for families and businesses alike. For the moment anyway, people are taking it in stride.
过去几个月以来，中东和北非地区的动荡导致全球市场上的石油价格上升到每桶100美元以上，美国的燃油价格也因此上涨。许多家庭和企业交通预算因此受到影响。不过，从目前来看，大家还是能够坦然应对油价上涨的事实。
Filling up at the gasoline pump has become much more expensive in recent weeks as the sharp rise in crude oil prices comes down to the ordinary consumer.
原油价格的剧烈上涨最终会让每个普通消费者来分担，最近几个星期，到加油站加油变得更加昂贵了。
Most people, including this woman, are not happy about it. “I am a college student and I have to drive 45 minutes to college, so it [is terrible].”
大部分人对此都感到不开心。一位女士说：“我在上大学，每天不得不开车45分钟到学校。这太糟糕了。”
Many people are making adjustments, driving less or using cars with better fuel economy if they have that option. Richard, who owns a gas-guzzling truck, said he may start leaving it at home more often.
很多人都在做调整，少开点车，或者尽可能提高汽油的使用效率。
“I do work a ways from where I live, so I will have to drive the other car. We have a smaller car, a Ford Fusion, and that gets good gas mileage.”
这位男士说：“我工作的地方和我住的地方距离很远。所以，我必须开另外一辆车。我们有一辆小点的车，是福特的Fusion。它的油效很好。”
Most U.S. drivers are reacting calmly to the rise in fuel prices, partly because prices have not yet gone as high as they were in 2008, when oil went to more than $147 a barrel.
美国大多数开车族对这次油价上涨反应平静。部分原因是油价还没有像2008年的时候那样高。当时每桶原油价格高达147美元。
Even a larger spike in prices would probably not have much impact on U.S. fuel consumption, according to Mahmoud El-Gamal, chairman of the Economics Department at Rice University. “It would take a long time of very high prices for people to change their lifestyles and for cities to be structured around those new lifestyles.”
莱斯大学经济系主任阿尔贾玛尔说，既使油价上涨的幅度再大一些，它对美国的汽油消耗量可能也不会有很大的影响。阿尔贾玛尔说：“如果油价很高，人们也需要经过很长时间采会改变自己的生活方式。城市规划才会按照人们的新的生活方式发生变化。”
The problem is that most U.S. cities, like Houston, are spread out over a large area and people commute to work or school from distant suburbs. El-Gamal said changing the infrastructure and the attitudes of people who choose to live far from their place of work is difficult and costly.
问题是，美国大部分城市都象休斯顿那样地域广阔，民众都要经过通勤才能上班或者上学。莱斯大学的阿尔贾玛尔(Mahmoud El-Gamal)说：
“We are seeing some urbanization trends, where the sub-urbanization that we observed over the last few decades is being reversed, but it is being reversed very, very slowly.”
“我们在过去几十年中所看到的郊区化进程在一些城市化趋势中得到逆转，但速度很慢。”
The most immediate cause of the rise in oil prices is unrest in Libya and other Middle East oil-producing nations.
油价上涨的最直接原因，是利比亚和其他中东产油国的局势动荡。
El-Gamal said any disruption, anywhere, affects the price of oil worldwide. “The United States does not actually import much oil from the Middle East; most of our oil would be from Canada, but still, because it is a global market, total supply and total demand will determine prices.”
阿尔贾玛尔说，任何产油地区的动荡都会影响到全球的油价。“美国其实并没有从中东进口很多石油。美国大部分石油进口来自加拿大。但由于石油供给的国际化，国际市场的供需情况决定着石油的价格。”
What worries El-Gamal is not so much the unrest in Libya, but the strife in Bahrain, which sits near the major shipping routes out of the oil-rich Persian Gulf. “Disruption of oil flow out of the Persian Gulf could be catastrophic, then you would be talking $300 a barrel, not 120.”
和利比亚的动荡局势相比，巴林的冲突让阿尔贾玛尔感到更加担心，因为巴林的地理位置紧靠海湾产油地区的主要航运通道。他说：“海湾地区石油输出的中断将产生灾难性后果。那时候，我们谈论的就不是原油每桶120美元，而是300美元了。”
Although states like Texas still produce oil, domestic production is far short of demand and the United States imports two thirds of the petroleum it uses.
尽管德克萨斯等地也生产石油，但美国国内原油产出远远无法满足需求，美国原油需求的三分之二依赖进口。
That means prices at the pump here reflect such things as weakness in the dollar, which is used in international oil pricing, and growing demand for oil in China and India. Turmoil in the Middle East has the most dramatic impact, though, so that even the slightest hint of a supply disruption from the world's richest oil region can cause prices at U.S. gasoline pumps to rise quickly.
这就意味着，用来为原油标价的美元出现疲软、中国和印度等国需求的增加、乃至世界最主要产油地区的供应如果出现些微的干扰迹象，美国人在加油站的油泵旁都能感受到价格的变化。 |