纽约时报 拜登为降低油价--只剩最糟的选择(1)

 

 

    When President Biden meets Crown Prince Mohammed bin¹ Salman in Saudi Arabia, he will be following in the footsteps of presidents like Jimmy Carter, who flew to Tehran in 1977 to exchange toasts with the shah of Iran on New Year’s Eve.

    当拜登总统在沙特阿拉伯会见王储穆罕默德·本·萨勒曼时，他将会追随吉米·卡特等总统的脚步。卡特曾于1977年飞往德黑兰，在新年前夕与伊朗国王互相敬酒。

    Like the prince, the shah was an unelected monarch² with a tarnished³ human rights record.

    与这位王子一样，这位国王也是一位人权记录不佳的非民选君主。

    But Mr. Carter was obliged to celebrate with him for a cause that was of great concern to people back home: cheaper gasoline and secure oil supplies.

    但是，卡特不得不和他一起庆祝，因为美国人非常关心一件事: 更便宜的汽油价格与稳定的石油供应。

    As Mr. Carter and other presidents learned, Mr. Biden has precious few tools to bring down costs at the pump, especially when Russia, one of the world’s largest energy producers, has started an unprovoked war against a smaller neighbor.

    正如卡特和其他总统所知晓的，拜登几乎没有什么工具可以降低加油站的成本，尤其是在俄罗斯这个世界上最大的能源生产国之一，对一个较小的邻国发动了一场战争的情况下。

    In Mr. Carter’s time, oil supplies that Western countries needed were threatened by revolutions in the Middle East.

    在卡特时代，西方国家所需的石油供应受到了中东革命的威胁。

    During the 2020 campaign, Mr. Biden pledged to turn Saudi Arabia into a “pariah” for the assassination⁴ of a prominent dissident, Jamal Khashoggi.

    在2020年的竞选中，拜登承诺要把沙特阿拉伯变成一个“社会孤立国”，因为沙特暗杀了著名异见人士贾马尔·哈苏吉。

    But officials said last week that he planned to visit the kingdom this summer.

    但官员们上周表示，他计划今年夏天访问沙特。

    It was just the latest sign that oil has again regained⁵ its centrality in geopolitics.

    这只是石油在地缘政治中重新占据中心地位的最新迹象。

    Just a few years ago, many lawmakers in Washington and oil and gas executives in Texas were patting themselves on the back for an energy boom that had turned the United States into a net exporter of oil and petroleum⁶ products and made it more energy independent.

    就在几年前，华盛顿的许多议员与德克萨斯州的石油和天然气高管还在为一场能源热潮而沾沾自喜，这场能源热潮让美国变成了石油和石油产品的净出口国，并使其在能源上更加独立。

    With prices rising, that achievement now looks illusory.

    随着能源价格的上涨，这一成就现在看起来是虚幻的。

    The United States is the world’s biggest oil and natural gas producer, but it accounts for only about 12 percent of the global petroleum supply.

    美国是世界上最大的石油和天然气生产国，但美国只占全球石油供应的12%左右。

    The price of oil, the principal cost in gasoline, can still shoot up or tumble depending on events halfway⁷ around the world.

    石油的价格主要影响汽油的成本，前者价格仍然会因地球另一端发生的事件而暴涨或暴跌。

    And no president, no matter how powerful or competent, can do much to control it.

    任何一位总统，无论多么强大或有能力，都无法有效地控制其价格。

    Those facts are cold comfort to Americans who are finding that a stop at the gas station can easily cost a hundred dollars, much more than just a year earlier.

    这些事实对美国人来说并没有什么安慰作用，他们发现在加油站停一次很容易就会花费100美元，远远超过一年前的价格。

    When fuel prices rise, consumers demand action and can turn against presidents who seem unwilling⁸ or unable to bring them back down.

    当燃料价格上涨时，消费者会要求采取行动，并可能会转而反对那些似乎不愿或无法让油价回落的总统。

    Always looking ahead to the next election when their jobs or their party’s hold on power is at stake, presidents can find it impossible not to try to cajole or plead with foreign and domestic oil producers to drill and pump more oil, faster.

    当下一次选举关系到他们的工作或他们政党的权力时，总统们总是会发现，他们不可能不试图劝诱或恳求国内外石油生产商更快地钻探和开采更多的石油。

1 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。

2 monarch   

n.帝王，君主，最高统治者

参考例句：

• The monarch's role is purely ceremonial.君主纯粹是个礼仪职位。
• I think myself happier now than the greatest monarch upon earth.我觉得这个时候比世界上什么帝王都快乐。

3 tarnished   

（通常指金属）（使）失去光泽，（使）变灰暗( tarnish的过去式和过去分词 )； 玷污，败坏

参考例句：

• The mirrors had tarnished with age. 这些镜子因年深日久而照影不清楚。
• His bad behaviour has tarnished the good name of the school. 他行为不轨，败坏了学校的声誉。

4 assassination   

n.暗杀；暗杀事件

参考例句：

• The assassination of the president brought matters to a head.总统遭暗杀使事态到了严重关头。
• Lincoln's assassination in 1865 shocked the whole nation.1865年，林肯遇刺事件震惊全美国。

5 regained   

复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地

参考例句：

• The majority of the people in the world have regained their liberty. 世界上大多数人已重获自由。
• She hesitated briefly but quickly regained her poise. 她犹豫片刻，但很快恢复了镇静。

6 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。

7 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

8 unwilling   

adj.不情愿的

参考例句：

• The natives were unwilling to be bent by colonial power.土著居民不愿受殖民势力的摆布。
• His tightfisted employer was unwilling to give him a raise.他那吝啬的雇主不肯给他加薪。