沈阳工业大学硕士英语精读Unit6贫富有别.docx
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1、,For personal use only in study and research; not for commercial use腿Unit6 贫富有别,治国有道莈1 The sweet perfume wafting over northern Iraq does not come from the wildflowers that speckle its rumpled plains in spring. It is the smell of oil and it is everywhere, flaring at wellheads, sloshing from the tanke
2、r trucks that grind up potholed roads to backyard refineries in the Kurdish hills and fuming from their chimneys. Nor is this the oiliest part of Iraq. That lies in the deserts to the south where it literally seeps from the ground. In fact the whole of Iraq sits atop seams and pockets of the sticky
3、stuff. There is plenty to go around, if only the Iraqis could agree to stop shooting each other.蒄伊拉克北部的空气中弥漫的甜甜的芳香并非来自于春天里点缀着凌乱草地的野花,这种气味是由遍及这里每一寸土地的石油而散发开来的,而且随处可见开采井口冒着熊熊烈火,油罐车轧着崎岖的路面留下了一路的油渍,而它的目的地便是库尔德山间烟囱耸立的炼油厂。其实伊拉克最为盛产石油的地方还不是这里,而是位于通往南部的沙漠那里的石油简直是从地面直接渗出来的。假如这个国家族群之间的暴力争斗能够停止的话,那生活在液体黄金之上的全体
4、伊拉克人民一定会过着安居乐业的生活。蒃艿2 There is plenty for other Arabs, too. Taken together, their 19 countries hold some 46% of the worlds total proven oil reserves (as well as a quarter of its natural-gas reserves). The ones with the most have it doubly easy. Saudis or Kuwaitis spend just $3 to tap a barrel from t
5、heir most accessible wells. Small wonder that their oilmen scoff at looming competition from Americas fancy frackers and shalers. The technical wizardry of the modern drilling techniques that may soon make America self-sufficient in energy can push the cost of extracting a barrel well beyond $100.薅其
6、实,伊拉克富饶的燃料资源只是整个阿拉伯世界一个缩影。数据显示,全球46%的石油探明储量(以及1/4的天然气储量)都位于19个阿拉伯国家的地下,其中储量最多的那些国家更是轻而易举地就能获取石油资源。沙特和科威特最易开采石油的地方,其最低成本只需每桶3美元,这也就是为什么美国高端的水力压裂页岩油气技术人员带来了日趋激烈的竞争,而当地石油开采工人却还不以为然的原因。这种在美国人眼中的现代钻井技术可能在不久的将来,奇迹般地使美国成为一个能源自给的国家但是采用这一技术的开采成本却远远高于每桶100美元。芆膂3 The Arab worlds hydrocarbon riches are unevenly
7、 shared. Saudi Arabia alone holds the bulk of all reserves. Just eight Arab countries have actually grown rich from energy exports, though some of them spectacularly so: in the tiny emirate of Qatar some 14% of households are dollar millionaires, a higher proportion than in any other country. Divide
8、d among its 250,000 citizens (the other 85% of Qatars population of 2.1m are foreign workers), the tiny emirates GDP comes to $700,000 per person. Average incomes across the Arab Gulf states are around 50 times those in Yemen, Sudan and Mauritania.艿不过尽管阿拉伯地区富含烃类物质,然而分布并不均匀沙特阿拉伯一国就占据了巨额储量。事实上,阿拉伯国家中只
9、有8个通过能源出口成功致富,不过其中仍有几国十分惹眼。酋长国卡塔尔国土面积很小,却有约14%的家庭资产超过百万美元,这一比例可谓世界之最。如果把该国的国内生产总值平分到25万本国国民手中,那每个人可以拿到70万美元(卡塔尔210万总人口中有85%是外国工人)。阿拉伯海湾国家的平均收入几乎是也门、苏丹和毛里塔尼亚的50倍。羆蚄4 This may change. Poorer Arab states are not about to become new Qatars, but many, such as Yemen, Tunisia, Sudan and Egypt, already expo
10、rt oil or gas, and the lingering energy paupers are doing better too. Morocco, until now completely reliant on imports, pins high hopes on offshore exploration that is just getting under way. Its Atlantic shelf shares the same promising geology that oil companies in Mauritania are already exploiting
11、. Much of this potential lode skirts the long coast of the Western Sahara, where sovereignty remains contested despite four decades of de facto Moroccan control. But there may be plenty in undisputed waters, too.羁但这一差距可能并不会永久地持续下去。一些较为贫穷的阿拉伯国家虽然并不太可能成为第二、第三个卡塔尔,但其中许多国家(如也门、突尼斯、苏丹和埃及)也已经开始出口石油天然气,而迟迟
12、没有动作的那些富含能源的穷国也开始有所行动了。摩洛哥直到现在为止仍然完全依赖于能源进口,但她目前正在进行海上能源勘探,并对该项工程抱有很大的希望。毛里塔尼亚的石油公司已经开始在其大陆架上开采能源,而摩洛哥伸向大西洋的大陆架也具有与毛里塔尼亚相似的地质条件。许多这些潜藏的矿脉都是沿着西撒哈拉长长的海岸线分布的。西撒哈拉的主权目前仍然存在争议,而摩洛哥在40年间实际控制了这一地区。不过在没有争议的水域同样也存在着丰富的潜藏矿脉。荿莇5 Huge gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean also sprawl across maritime borders.
13、Egypt has been tapping its patch for years, with Israel following more recently. Lebanon has untangled itself from internal bickering. Some day Gaza should have a share of the crowded territorys only resource aside from people. Perhaps in the future the other part of Palestine, the West Bank, will a
14、lso profit from the small deposits of crude oil that Israeli firms have found under its hills. Even Jordan may at last be able to stop begging its neighbours for fuel. If oil prices hold steady above the $100 mark around which they have fluctuated in recent years, the shale oil that sits under 60% o
15、f Jordans surface will become commercially viable.莅地中海东部水域的大型天然气田沿海蔓延。多年以来,埃及一直在这一水域钻井采气,而最近以色列也开始不甘落后、迎头赶上。黎巴嫩已经结束了国家内部喋喋不休的争论。有朝一日,加沙也应该会在人头济济的国土范围内分得一杯羹(当地除了人以外也就剩下燃料能源了)。在巴勒斯坦的另一地区西岸,已经有以色列公司在其山地地下发现了少量原油储量,西岸可能未来也会从中受益。甚至约旦最终也可能不必再依赖于邻国的燃料供给。石油价格最近几年一直徘徊在100美元附近,如果能长期稳定在100美元水平之上的话,约旦60%国土之下蕴藏的
16、页岩油资源将会凸显出其商业价值不过这个“如果”非常重要。蝿6 That is a big if. In 1999 this newspaper speculated that oil prices might collapse to $5 a barrel. Instead they soared, peaking in 2008 at $145. The worlds current mix of political instability in oil-producing zones and surging demand from Asia leads some to think that
17、 despite expanding oil production worldwide, a wobbly balance between supply and demand might be maintained. But experience suggests that high prices sustained over long periods encourage massive investment in exploration and improved yields from existing infrastructure.葿本报曾于1999年作出预测,油价可能会暴跌至每桶5美元。
18、随后油价却是一路飙升,于2008年达到最高的每桶145美元。如今,产油地区政治局势动荡,亚洲地区需求急剧增长。据此,有些人认为尽管全球石油产量正在扩张,但目前供需之间的弱势平衡可能很难打破。然而经验表明,长期的价格高企会刺激石油勘探的大量投资,并提升现有设施的采油能力。螇袃7 That is what happened in the 1970s, when high prices spurred energy conservation and made it cost-effective to produce in places like Alaska and the North Sea. T
19、he resulting oil-price collapse in the 1980s lasted a long time, despite rising Asian demand and supply shocks such as the eight-year war between two of the biggest exporters, Iran and Iraq. Arab producers were badly hit. GDP per person in Saudi Arabia and Libya shrank by a third and took 20 years t
20、o regain its 1981 level.螂20世纪70年代便是如此。在当时高油价的影响下,人们纷纷进行能源囤积,而阿拉斯加和北海的石油生产也变得有利可图起来。然而结果却是之后80年代的油价崩盘;在整个阿拉伯地区,强大的资源政治和家族政治互相盘;减少补贴一定会遇到阻力,但政府有能力也必须这么去;大团结;瑟迪还给出了另外一个建议,就是阿拉伯国家应该寻求;可是如今,海湾地区外来职工中只有1/4来自阿拉伯;大开国门;两国人民已经几乎没人能够记得两国政府闭关的原因了;果却是之后80年代的油价崩盘。尽管当时亚洲需求也在上升、供应也存在冲击(如两大石油出口大国之间历经八年的“两伊战争”),但油价仍然
21、持续下跌,阿拉伯石油生产商受到了重创。沙特阿拉伯和利比亚的人均GDP锐减了1/3,直到20年之后才重新回到了1981年的水平。蕿袄8 A similar price fall today might not seem as threatening to the bigger Arab producers. Over the past decade they have racked up surpluses approaching the size of the combined GDP of all 19 Arab states, $2.9 trillion. About half of th
22、at is sitting in sovereign-wealth funds or foreign-currency reserves. But many governments, wary of unrest, have also raised state spending to potentially unsustainable levels. The so-called fiscal break-even point (the oil price needed to balance exporters budgets) is currently over $80 for Saudi A
23、rabia and $110 for Algeria, which relies on energy exports for 70% of its government revenue.薅不过到了今天,即使油价走势重蹈覆辙,阿拉伯大型石油生产企业也已是今非昔比了。在过去的十年间,这些大型企业所积累的净利润已经接近19个阿拉伯国家的GDP总和(2.9万亿美元)。其中约有一半躺在了主权财富基金和外汇储备之中。但是许多国家政府为了维稳所加大的国家支出,仍已到达了可能难以为继的程度。对于沙特阿拉伯而言,目前所谓的保持财政平衡的油价水平(石油出口国为平衡预算而必要的石油价格)已经超过了每桶80美元,而阿
24、尔及利亚已经到了110美元。其中阿尔及利亚的政府收入,有70%依赖于能源出口。薁虿9 Both governments could simply cut spending, though that involves political risks. They could also try something else: raise local energy prices. Throughout the region, the combination of big resources and patriarchal politics has made a hash of economics. T
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