美国英语听力80篇4 Lesson69

[00:06.87]OPEC,the Organization of Petroleum 1 Exporting Countries agreed

[00:13.30]this week to increase oil production.

[00:17.42]The increase is aimed at lowering oil prices,

[00:22.15]which went up after OPEC and several other nations cut production last year

[00:29.49]The OPEC agreement is expected to add 1.7 million barrels of oil a day.

[00:37.62]That would increase oil supplies more than seven percent.

[00:44.15]Nine of the eleven OPEC members agreedd

[00:49.40]to the increase at a meeting in Vienna.

[00:53.52]Iraq is not involved in the plan

[00:58.04]because of its separate Unigted Nations oil-for-food program.

[01:04.08]Iran at first refused to take part in the increase

[01:09.83]to protest American pressure on OPEC.

[01:14.16]However,later Iran said it would also agree to increase production.

[01:21.37]Iran is the second largest OPEC producer,after Saudi Arabia.

[01:28.42]The United States is OPEC's largest market.

[01:34.17]The Clinton administration had called for increases of up

[01:39.60]to 2.5 million barrels a day to reduce high gasoline prices.

[01:46.37]American lawmakers were threatening to punish OPEC

[01:51.73]if it did not raise production.

[01:55.67]Some non-OPEC members also plan to increase oil production.

[02:02.49]Mexico will produce 150,000 barrels a day more,beginning saturday

[02:10.72]Norway has also agreed to increase production.

[02:15.73]And Venezuela said Friday that within a month

[02:20.98]it will increase production by 125,000 barrels a day.

[02:28.19]The OPEC ministers agreed to a Venezuelan proposal

[02:34.04]for a system of quick supply changes

[02:38.09]to keep prices from rising or falling too much.

[02:43.06]At their meeting in Vienna they also elected Venezuela's Oil

[02:49.30]Minister Ali Rodriguez as the new president of OPEC.

[02:55.05]Mister rodriguez says OPEC will try to keep oil prices

[03:01.81]between twenty-two dollars and twenty-eight dollars a barrel.

[03:07.25]This past Monday,oil prices at the New York Mercantile Exchange

[03:14.30]closed at almost twenty-four dollars a barrel.

[03:19.55]This is the highest since the Persian Gulf 2 War nine years ago

[03:25.98]after Iraq invaded Kuwait.

[03:29.82]But on Thursday,after the OPEC members agreed to increase production,

[03:37.26]the price of oil fell below twenty-five dollars a barrel.

[03:43.29]President Clinton urged American oil companies to use the savings 3

[03:48.83]to lower gasoline prices for the public.

[03:53.17]Economists say high oil prices can cause inflation 4

[03:59.41]and hurt the economies of many nations.

[04:03.75]OPEC supplies more than one-third of the world's oil.

[04:09.18]Oil industry experts say it will be at least six

[04:15.50]to eight weeks before the increased production reaches the public.

[04:21.15]Some experts,however,question if the production increase

[04:27.18]will be enough to satisfy the demand and hold prices down.

[04:33.03]They note that many OPEC members already cheat on their production limits

[04:40.19]by selling more oil than they are permitted.

[04:44.63]OPEC ministers will meet again in June to study the effects of the increase