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  3. The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, e

The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, e

admin2015-03-25  51
问题     The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18. It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting. Other liquids produced in the refining process were burned or dumped. But the unwanted petrol and diesel did not go to waste for long, thanks to the development of the internal-combustion engine a few years later.
    Since then demand for oil has risen steadily alongside ever-increasing travel by car, plane and ship. Three-fifths of it ends up in fuel tanks. With billions of Asian people growing richer and itching to get behind the wheel of a car, the big oil companies, the International Energy Agency(IEA)and America’s Energy Information Administration all predict that demand will keep on rising.
    We believe that they are wrong, and that oil is close to a peak. This is not the "peak oil" widely discussed several years ago, when several theorists reckoned that supply would flatten and then fall. We believe that demand, not supply, could decline. In the rich world oil demand has already peaked: it has fallen since 2005.
    The first revolution was led by a Texan who has just died. George Mitchell championed "fracking" as a way to release huge supplies of "unconventional" gas from shale beds. This, along with vast new discoveries of conventional gas, has recently helped increase the world’s reserves from 50 to 200 years. ln America, where thanks to Mr. Mitchell shale gas already billows from the ground, liquefied or compressed gas is finding its way into the tanks of lorries, buses and local-delivery vehicles.
    The other great change is in automotive technology. Rapid advances in engine and vehicle design also threaten oil’s dominance. Foremost is the efficiency of the internal-combustion engine itself. Petrol and diesel engines are becoming ever more frugal. The materials used to make cars are getting lighter and stronger. The growing popularity of electric and hybrid cars, as well as vehicles powered by natural gas or hydrogen fuel cells, will also have an effect on demand for oil.
    Not surprisingly, the oil "supermajors" and the IEA disagree. They point out that most of the emerging world has a long way to go before it owns as many cars, or drives as many miles per head, as America. But it would be foolish to extrapolate from the rich world’s past to booming Asia’s future. The sort of environmental policies that are reducing the thirst for fuel in Europe and America by imposing ever-tougher fuel-efficiency standards on vehicles are also being adopted in the emerging economies.
What is most likely the effect of the change in automotive technology on oil?
选项 A、Oil will be unevenly distributed in the world.
B、Oil will eventually lose its popularity.
C、More high-quality oil will be needed.
D、The demand of oil will gradually drop.
答案D
解析 推理判断题。根据题干关键词automotive technology定位到第五段。该段主要描述了汽车技术领域的巨大变化，各种科技进步都表明，汽车领域对于石油的需求越来越小。由此可知，汽车技术的进步使得人们对石油的需求量逐渐降低，因此选[D]。文章中没有提到石油在全球的分布情况，故排除[A]；虽然文章在第五段第五句提到电动和混合动力汽车以及天然气或氢燃料电池动力汽车都越来越普及，但并没有提到石油最终会不受欢迎，故排除[B]；文章中没有提到石油的质量对汽车技术的影响，故排除[C]。
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