Read the following article and choose the best word for each space.
For questions 26~45, mark one letter A, B, C or D on your Answer Sheet.
As Oil Declines, So Does America
More than 100 years ago, America's first great economic【C1】______abroad was spearheaded by its giant oil companies, notably John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company. These companies【C2】______powerful beachheads in Mexico and Venezuela, and later in parts of Asia, North Africa and, of course, the Middle East.【C3】______they became ever more dependent on the extraction of oil in distant lands, American foreign policy began to be【C4】______around acquiring and protecting US oil concessions in major【C5】______areas.
With World War II and the Cold War, oil and US national【C6】______became thoroughly intertwined. After all, the United States had prevailed over the Axis【C7】______in significant part because it possessed vast reserves of domestic petroleum, while Germany and Japan lacked them, depriving their forces of vital【C8】______supplies in the final years of the war. As it happened, though, the United States was using up its domestic【C9】______so rapidly that, even before World War II was over, Washington【C10】______its attention to finding new overseas sources of crude oil that could be【C11】______under American control. As a result, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and a host of other Middle Eastern producers would become key US oil suppliers【C12】______American military protection.
There can be【C13】______question that, for a time, American domination of world oil production would prove a potent source of economic and military power.【C14】______World War II, an abundance of cheap US oil spurred the【C15】______of vast new industries, including civilian air travel, highway construction, a【C16】______of suburban housing and commerce, mechanized agriculture, and plastics.
Abundant oil also underlay the global expansion of the country's【C17】______power, as the Pentagon defended the world while becoming one of the planet's great oil guzzlers. Its global dominion came to【C18】______on an ever-expanding array of oil-powered ships, planes, tanks and missiles. As long as the Middle East — and especially Saudi Arabia — served essentially as an American gas station and oil【C19】______a cheap commodity, all this was relatively painless. That is why the use of military force has been a【C20】______of American foreign policy since 1987.
单选题 【C1】
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】该句意思是“100多年前,美国通过石油巨头首次向海外进行经济扩张”,“expansion”这里指“扩张”。
单选题 【C2】
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】这里只有“establish”可以和文中的“beachhead(滩头阵地)”构建,符合上下文的意义。
单选题 【C3】
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】该句的意思是“随着他们(这些巨头公司)对远方石油提炼变得越来越依赖,美国的外交政策围绕获取和保护主要石油生产基地而进行重新构建”,所以C符合题意。
单选题 【C4】
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】解释同上。
单选题 【C5】
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】解释同上。
单选题 【C6】
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】该句的意思是“因为二战和冷战,美国的石油(生产)和国家安全互相交缠在一起。”故D符合题意。
单选题 【C7】
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】Axis powers指“轴心国”。
单选题 【C8】
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】“fuel”在这里就是“oil”的同义替代词。
单选题 【C9】
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】“conserve”意思是“保护,保藏”;“preserve”意思是“保护;保持,保存”;“reserve”意思是“储备,储存”;“deserve”意思是“应受;应得;值得”。故C符合题意。
单选题 【C10】
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】“focus”和“on”搭配;“transfer”意思是“转让;转学;转乘”;“turn one's attention to”意思是“把注意力转向……”,符合题意。“distract”意思是“使分心;使混乱”。
单选题 【C11】
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】“bring sth.under control”是一个固定搭配,意思是“控制住……”。
单选题 【C12】
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】“under someone’s protection”是一个固定搭配,意思是“受到……的保护”。
单选题 【C13】
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】“毋庸置疑,美国对全世界的石油控制是其第二次世界大战之后经济和军事实力的源泉,便宜的石油供应刺激了大量新兴行业的发展,这些新兴行业包括民航、公路建设等,大量的郊区房屋及商业设施建设等,以及农业机械化、塑料制品的发展等”。
单选题 【C14】
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】该句翻译见上题.
单选题 【C15】
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】该句翻译见上题.
单选题 【C16】
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】该句翻译见上题.
单选题 【C17】
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】由空格之后的“Pentagon(五角大楼,指美国国防部)”推断出此处指的是军事。
单选题 【C18】
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】“rest on”是固定搭配,意思是“依赖于,寄托于……上”。
单选题 【C19】
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】“remain”和“stay”都指“继续停留”或“继续保持某种状态、关系或行动。”remain常可与stay互换。
1.表示“继续待在某处”时,应该用不及物动词remain或stay,例如:Stay indoors for a few days until you recover from your cold.及Heremained in his seat after all the other students had gone home.
2.表示“继续保持或处于原来的状态”时,可用remain或stay,例如:Three of them remained single.Shops should remain open till later in the evening.及The door stayed closed.Butthe police themselves prefer to stay unarmed.
3.表示“暂住、短期停留”时,只能用不及物动词stay。例如:My mother-in-law stayed with us this week when shevisited us.
4.表示“残留、剩下”时,只能用不及物动词remain.例如:Not muchof the house remained after the fire.及Of the seven brothers,only four now remain;the rest are dead.
5 remain强调“继续停留于一处或保持原状态、情况性质而不改变”,stay强调“某人(物)继续留在原地而不离开”,如:This place remainscool all summer.这个地方整个夏天都凉爽。及He stayed to see the end of thegame.Keep相当于be动词,后跟形容词,表示维持一种状态,比如:keep calm;keep还可以跟名词,表示保留收藏什么东西,比如:keep this book;而stay后跟副词、介词短语的情况比较多。比如stay here,stay overnight.此题选“remained”,是指如果美国的石油继续保持便宜的状态的话。
单选题 【C20】
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】“staple”意思是“主要部分;重要内容”,这里指自1987年以来,美国外交政策的主要内容就是使用军事武力。“key”的意思是“关键,线索,秘诀”,不符合题意。