英汉对照.doc

【英汉对照】
⑴Could the bad old days of economic decline be about to return? (2) Since OPEC agreed to
supply-cuts in March, the price of crude oil has jumped to almost $26 a barrel, up from less than $10 last December. ⑶This near tripling of oil prices calls up scary memories of the 1973 oil shock, when prices quadrupled, and 1979-80, when they also almost tripled. ⑷Both previous shocks resulted in double-digit inflation and global economic decline. ⑸So where are the headlines warning of gloom and doom this time?
⑴The oil price was given another push up this
week when Iraq suspended oil exports. (2)Strengthening economic growth, at the same time
as winter grips the northern hemisphere, could push the price higher still in the short term.
⑴Yet there are good reasons to expect the economic consequences now to be less severe than in the 1970s. (2)In most countries the cost of crude oil now accounts for a smaller share of the price of petrol than it did in the 1970s. ⑶In Europe, taxes account for up to four-fifths of the retail price, so even quite big changes in the price of crude have a more muted effect on pump prices than in the past.
⑴Rich economies are also less dependent on oil than they were, and so less sensitive to swings in the oil price. (2)Energy conservation, a shift to other fuels and a decline in the importance of heavy, energy-intensive industries have redu