Oil is the substance that lubricates the world’s economy. Because so many of our modern technologies and services depend on oil,

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问题     Oil is the substance that lubricates the world’s economy. Because so many of our modern technologies and services depend on oil, nations, corporations, and institutions that control the trade in oil exercise extraordinary power. The "energy crisis" of 1973-1974 in the United States demonstrated how the price of oil can affect US government policies and the energy-using habits of the nation.
    By 1973, domestic US sources of oil were peaking, and the nation was importing more of its oil, depending on a constant flow from abroad to keep cars on the road and machines running. In addition, at that time a greater percentage of homes and electrical plants were run on petroleum than today. Then, in 1973, the predominantly Arab nations of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries(OPEC)resolved to stop selling oil to the United States. The move was prompted by OPEC’s desire to raise prices by restricting supply and by its opposition to US support of Israel in the Arab-Israeli Yom Kippur War. The embargo(禁运)created panic in the West and caused oil prices to shoot up. Short-term oil shortage drove American consumers to wait in long lines at gas pumps.
    In response to the embargo, the US government enforced a series of policies designed to reduce reliance on foreign oil. These included developing additional domestic sources(such as those on Alaska’s North Slope), resuming extraction at sites that had been shut down because of cost inefficiency, capping the price that domestic producers could charge for oil, and beginning to import oil from a greater diversity of nations. The government also established a stockpile(贮存)of oil as a short-term buffer(缓冲)against future shortages. Stored underground in large salt caves in Louisiana, this stockpile is called the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and currently contains over 600 million barrels of oil, roughly equivalent to one month’s supply.
Over the years before the OPEC’s embargo America had depended heavily on______.

选项

答案foreign oil/importing oil

解析 细节辨认题。定位句提到,到1973年,也就是禁运之前,美国需要依赖从国外进口的源源不断的石油来保证国内正常的生活秩序。原文第三段首句也提到,为了应对禁运,美国政府实施了一系列政策来减少对国外石油的依赖。由此可知,在禁运之前的多年间,美国经济极大地依赖从国外进口石油。因为空格前为动词短语depended heavily on,空格处应填入名词短语或动名词短语,故答案为foreign oil或importing oil。
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