单选题
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.
It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after
overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber. Other liquids produced in the
refining process, too unstable or smoky for lamplight, 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, with a couple of {{U}}blips{{/U}} in the 1970s
and 1980s, risen steadily alongside ever-increasing travel by car, plane and
ship. Three-fifths of it ends up in fuel tanks. With billions of Chinese and
Indians 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, who have since gone strangely quiet, 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. Even
allowing for all those new drivers in Beijing and Delhi, two revolutions in
technology will dampen the world's thirst for the black stuff.
The first revolution was led by a man from Texas who has just died. George
Mitchell championed "fracking" as a way to release huge supplies of
"unconventional" gas from shale (a smooth soft rock) beds. This, along
with vast new discoveries of conventional gas, has recently helped increase the
world's reserves from 50 to 200 years. 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. 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 predict
from the rich world's past to booming Asia's future. The sorts 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.
单选题
It can be inferred from the first paragraph that ______.
A. oil was first discovered and used in the Middle East.
B. the oil age is short-lived and has already come to its end.
C. the shortage of kerosene led to the use of petrol and diesel.
D. the oil age is largely attributed to technological
developments.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】[解析] 第一段第1句活提出the oil age，然后追溯石油利用和开采的历史，指出在石油利用的早期它只是用来生产煤油(make kerosene)，提炼过程中产生的汽油和柴油都白白浪费掉了。第一段最后一句话指出，汽油和柴油被真正加以利用得益于内燃机的发展(thanks to the development of internal-combustion engine)，由此可以看出，D项“石油时代极大地得益于科技的发展”概括了这个意思。
第一段第2句确实提到6000年前石油在中东被用于船只防水，但是不能因此而推断它最早是在中东被发现并使用。B项short-lived(短命的、短暂的)是对fairly recent(不久的事情)的曲解，再者has come to its end(已经走到了尽头)无法推知。C项与第一段最后两句表达的意思完全错乱。
单选题
The word "blip" (Line 1, Para. 2) most probably means ______.
单选题
Which of the following statements is true, according to paragraph 3 and
4?
A. Demand for oil is close to a peak with supplies increased.
B. The oil demand in the world has already peaked until 2005.
C. New energy has broken the dominance of conventional gas.
D. Demand for oil is limited while supply of oil is unlimited.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 第三段第1句作者指出石油公司和其他机构的错误预测。作者认为石油已经接近峰值(be close to a peak)，然后是进一步的解释，其中提到石油需求将下降，而不是石油供应，接着第四段第3句指出石油开采技术的革命增加了石油储备(helped increase the world's reserves)，可见A项的表述是正确的。
B项“the oil demand in the world”中的in the world属于夸大其辞，原文中是in the rich world(发达国家)。第四段倒数第3句指出“发动机和整车设计技术的快速发展威胁到了燃油的统治地位”，而不是new energy，况且break“打破”有夸大嫌疑，所以C项是无中生有。D项前半句正确，后半句无依据。
单选题
According to the last paragraph, the oil "supermajors" believe that
______.
A. the emerging world needs more vehicles.
B. the future of oil is bright in the emerging world.
C. the demand for oil is the strongest in Asia.
D. the thirst for fuel is impossible to be reduced.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[解析] 最后一段第2句指出，石油巨头们认为大多数新兴世界(在石油使用方面)还有很长的路要走(has a long way to go)，言外之意就是，在这些国家石油的前途还很光明，还有很大的上升空间，故B项正确。
最后一段的确提到...it owns as many cars as America，但这不是石油巨头们的想法，而是新兴世界可能想要达成的愿望，排除A项。C项the strongest推理过度，无法从文中看出。D项与文中reducing the thirst for fuel(正在减少对燃料的渴望)意思相反。
单选题
An appropriate title for the text is most likely to be ______.