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  3. Is there enough oil beneath the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (保护区) (ANWR)to help secure America’s energy future? President Bu

Is there enough oil beneath the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (保护区) (ANWR)to help secure America’s energy future? President Bu

admin2010-04-12  61
问题     Is there enough oil beneath the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (保护区) (ANWR)to help secure America’s energy future? President Bush certainly thinks so. He has argued that tapping ANWR’s oil would help ease California’s electricity crisis and provide a major boost to the country’s energy independence. But no one knows for sure how much crude oil lies buried beneath the frozen earth, with the last government survey, conducted in 1998, projecting output anywhere from 3 billion to 16 billion barreis.
    The oil industry goes with the high end of the range, which could equal as much as 10% of U.S. consumption for as long as six years. By pumping more than 1 million barreis a day from the reserve for the next two to three decades, lobbyists claim, the nation could cut back on imports equivalent to all shipments to the U.S. from Saudi Arabia. Sounds good. An oil boom would also mean a multibillion-dollar windfall (意外之财) in tax revenues, royalties (开采权使用费) and leasing fees for Alaska and the Federal Government. Best of all, advocates of drilling say, damage to the environment would be insignificant. "We’ve never had a documented case of an oil rig chasing deer out onto the pack ice," says Alaska State Representative Scott Ogan.
    Not so fast, say environmentalists. Sticking to the low end of government estimates, the National Resources Defense Council says there may be no more than 3.2 billion barreis of economically recoverable oil in the coastal plain of ANWR, a drop in the bucket that would do virtually nothing to ease America’s energy problems. And consumers would wait up to a decade to gain any benefits,  because drilling could begin only after much bargaining over leases, environmental permits and regulatory review. As for ANWR’s impact on the California power crisis, environmentalists point out that oil is responsible for only 1% of the Golden State’s electricity output-and just 3% of the nation’s.
What do the environmentalists mean by saying "Not so fast" (Line 1, Para. 3)?
选项 A、Don’t be too optimistic.
B、Don’t expect fast returns.
C、The oil drilling should be delayed.
D、Oil exploitation takes a long time.
答案A
解析 答案在第三段。环境学家们认为这项石油开采的前景没有那么乐观，一是因为这些石油对于减轻美国能源问题来说简直是杯水车薪；二是消费者还要等上十年才能获益。B项是对的，但不全面；选项C、D在本文中没有被提到。故选A)。
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