英语词汇文章4~6

Passage 4

OPEC is the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Petroleum - oil

It was founded in Bagdad in 1960 and has currently 11 members. OPEC’s aim is to regulate the amount of oil that member nations produce and to keep prices at a steady rate. The countries get together twice a year and agree on how much oil each country is allowed to produce. OPEC’ s headquarters are in Vienna, the capital of Austria.

Bagdad 巴格达

regulate 规划，控制

agree on 达成一致

headquarters 总部

Vienna 维尼亚

Austria 奥地利

Before OPEC was created, there were large oil companies that controlled the world’s oil production. They wanted to sell as much oil as possible and did not let governments influence their decisions. Oil-rich countries, especially in the Middle East, wanted more control over the oil that they produce, As a result, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Venezuela founded OPEC. In the following years Qatar, Indonesia, Libya, Algeria, Nigeria, Ecuador, Angola and the United Arab Emirates also become members.

As a result 结果 - consequence - consequently

In the 1960s, OPEC did not have much power. This changed in 1973 when the third Arab-Israeli war started. The United States and a few European countries supported Israel. As a form punishment. OPEC nations, influenced by the Arab countries, stopped selling oil to the West. Within the next six years oil prices rose to ten times the price of the early 1970s. OPEC countries became rich with so-called petrodollars; the West sank into deep recession because they needed OPEC’s oil.

Arab-Israeli war 阿拉伯以色列战争

punishment 惩罚

influenced 影响

petrodollars 石油美刀 （Portmanteau)

sank into 陷入

recession 衰退

In the aftermath of the energy crisis of the 1970s, western countries started looking for alternative forms of energy in order to become more independent from OPEC and the oil-producing nations. In 1986, oil prices dropped to the lowest rate in history. Oil-producing nations lost much of their income. In the 80s and 90s OPEC’s power diminished, often because of conflicts and internal arguments and because member states could not agree on production quotas. Some OPEC countries did not keep agreements and produced more oil, thus lowering prices.

aftermath 创伤

alternative 可替换的

dropped 下降

diminish 减少

production quotas 生产定额

agreement 协议

After 2000, oil prices began to rise again and reached an all-time high in 2007. The financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 hit world economy hard and oil prices fell once again. Sine the Arab Spring of 20011, prices have gone up and down several times. Today OPEC still controls about 60% of the world’s oil reserves and produces 40% of the world’s oil. Saudi Arabia is the most powerful member of the group, because it has the largest reserves. Even though there have been quarrels in the cartel in the last 5 decades it remains a powerful organization.

all-time high 历史最高点

financial crisis 经济危机

quarrel 争论

cartel 卡特尔

Passage 5

A research reports says that virtual worlds can be important places where children practice what they will do in real life. They are also a powerful and attractive alternative to more passive adventures like watching TV. The research was done with children using the BBC’s Adventure Rock virtual world, aimed at those aged 6-12. It surveyed and interviewed children who were the first to test the game.

practice v. 练习；n. 措施，手段

attractive 有吸引力的

adventures 娱乐方式

aim 目标

survey = investigate

test the game 内测

The online world is the theme island built for the BBC’s children channel by Belgian game maker Larian. Children explore the world alone but they use message boards to share what they find and what they do in the different creative studios they find around the virtual space.

explore 探索 exploration

At times children were explorers and at other they were social climbers eager to connect with other players. Some were power users looking for more information about how the virtual space really worked. The children could try all kinds of things without having to be afraid of the consequences that would follow if they tried them in the real world. They learned many useful social skills and played around with their identity in ways that would be much more difficult in real life.

at times 很多时候

social climber 社交达人

work 工作，运转，起作用，作品

consequence = result

in ways 在某些方面

According to the study what children liked about virtual worlds was the chance to create content such as music, cartoons and videos. The publishers of the reports say that virtual worlds can be a powerful, engaging and real interactive alternative to more passive media. They urged creators of virtual spaces for children to get young people involved very early on because they really do have good ideas to add and they are very good critical friends.

interactive 互动的

engaging = participate = involved

Passage 6

Do whale sleep?

• Like all mammals, whales breathe air
• They are warm-blooded
• They nurse their young with milk
• they have body hair.
• Whales have a four-chambered hearted.

nurse 滋养

Whales are mammals, so in many ways, They are just like human beings. The most important difference is that humans and whales live in different environments and whales have a special respiratory system that enables them to stay underwater for several minutes without breathing oxygen. For this reason, they are said to be voluntary breathers. That is, because of whales underwater environment, they must be conscious breathers. They think about every breath they take and come up to the surface of the water to breathe through blowholes on top of their heads.

voluntary 自发性的

conscious 有意识的 - consciousness - subconsciousness 潜意识的 - conscientious 有良知的

blowholes 呼吸孔

What is outstanding about whales is the way they can sleep. While all mammals sleep, whales cannot afford to become unconscious for long because they may drown. They only way they can sleep is by remaining partially conscious. It is believed that only one hemisphere of the whale’s brain sleeps at a time, so they rest but are never completely sleep. They can do so most probably near the surface so that they can come up for air easily.

outstanding - dwarf 相形见拙，矮人 - overshadow 相形见拙

drown - drought - dry

afford 承担，支付得起

part - partial - partially - potential 潜在的

• Whales are like fish in the way they breathe. true or false? ×
• Whales don’t sleep at all. true or false? ×
• Whales sleep by letting the whole brain rest for a lapse of time. true or false? ×

complete - whole - entire - all - total - overall

lapse 流逝（一段时间）

Mammal 哺乳动物
Whale 鲸鱼
Conscious 有意识的
Chamber 腔室
Partially 部分地
Nurse 护理
Drown 溺水
Oxygen 氧气
Outstanding 杰出的
Respiratory 呼吸的
Hemisphere 半球
Surface 表面
Voluntary 自愿的
Asleep 睡着的
Breath 呼吸

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