Passage 1

In a turnaround that would have been unthinkable a few years ago, the US is predicted to become the world’s top oil and gas producer by 2020, passing Russia and Saudi Arabia.That is the message of a report produced by PFC Energy, a consultancy, in November. The reason is the rapid growth of production from shale rock sources because of advances in technology.The forecast, on a barrel of oil equivalent basis, is a marked change for a country where overall oil, gas, and gas liquids production peaked in the early 1970s.The growth in extraction from shale has made the US the world’s largest producer of natural gas. It is now poised to enter the global liquefied natural gas export market.“North America is the second-largest source of additional LNG capacity in this decade after Australia,” Nikos Tsafos, senior manager in upstream and gas at PFC. “That is truly astonishing. ”Just 10 years ago the US was trying to build terminals to import LNG. Today, those who had expected to import are moving to refit facilities so they can now export.In late October, the BG Group signed the first long-term agreement to buy LNG from the Gulf coast, taking the US a step closer to becoming an exporter.Roger Ihne, principal in the energy and resources practice at Deloitte, the consultancy, estimates that if the three terminals that have been approved for export proceed with their plans, the amount of gas sent abroad would be just under 10 percent of current US consumption.And the impact on prices would be minimal, adds Tom Choi, Deloitte’s national practice leader for gas in the consultancy’s MarketPoint forecasting group. He estimates that even with that amount of fuel exported, US natural gas prices would only rise less than 2 percent because the resource is so abundant.“Even if the US substantially increased the use of natural gas, there would still be substantial gas left to meet its domestic needs for decades,” Mr Ihne says.Nonetheless, US manufacturers, who have gained substantially from the drop in US natural gas prices associated with the shale production boom, are worried. The Industrial Energy Consumers of America, a non-partisan association of leading manufacturing companies with $700bn in annual sales, is urging changes to the natural gas export permit process.

It has always been believed that the US will become the world’s top oil and gas producer.

December 11, 2011 marks the tenth anniversary of an event, which profoundly changed the global economy: China’s accession to the World Trade Organization. It is difficult not to overstate the effects of this accession, certainly on China, but also on China’s trading partners and on the global trading system itself. By integrating fully into the global economy, China has become the largest exporter of manufactured goods and the second largest economy in the world. This remarkable trade expansion has contributed significantly to China’s growth and development and has helped lift some 500 million people out of poverty.

Passage 1

Dubai is making progress in its efforts to promote international awareness of its attractions. The emirate is now firmly on the world sporting map and reaping the rewards of more publicity. Tennis had been added to the growing list of sporting events, with a BMW/Dubai Duty Free-sponsored tournament in February. This joins horse racing, golf, powerboat racing and snooker championships, which are all already established on the international tournament circuit.Major investment is going into the Dubai-based Emirates airline, which added four new destinations last summer–Rome, Zurich, Paris and Jakarta–and on 14 April started operations to Dhahran, its 31st destination. (Emirates) now employs almost 3,500 staff, making it one of Dubai’s largest employers.

46、Why does Dubai make efforts to hold various kinds of sporting events?

47、What sport had recently been added to the sporting events in Dubai?

48、What does “Emirates” stand for according to the context?

Passage 2

If there is a road to China’s future, Highway 204 out of Shanghai is it. Along its two dusty (lanes), local trucks and buses jockey with Cadillacs driven by financiers from Taiwan and Hong Kong investors. Migrant workers crowd the narrow (shoulders). Factories line the highway, producing sneakers, toys, plastics, clothes, aircraft components and medical equipment. Eventually industry (gives way to) ricefields, which is being dug up to build still more factories. Cranes turn overhead as dump trucks and cement mixers nose onto the road. Outside the town of Jiading, one tractor-trailer leaves Asia’s largest container plant every three minutes, carrying goods bound for the Shanghai docks. The traffic on Highway 204 is so thick that the trip from Shanghai to Zhangjiagang- only 115 kilometers away- takes five hours.

49、What’s the exact meaning of “ lanes ” here in the sentence?

50、What does “shoulders” refer to?

51、What does the phrase “ to give way to something” mean in the sentence?

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