雅思阅读：练习题-4.docxVIP

智课网IELTS备考资料 雅思阅读：练习题-4 摘要： 应考生们的要求，今天小编为大家主要介绍一下雅思阅读：练习题-4相关内容，大家在练习的时候要根据自己的实际情况来确定练习方法，这样才能在雅思考试上最大程度的发挥自己的实力，拿到雅思高分。  1 NEELIE KROES, the European Unions competition commissioner, did not mince her words when reporting on Europes energy markets on Wednesday January 10th. Europes energy firms have failed to invest in networks and so customers are suffering. Those “vertically integrated” energy companies such as Electricité de France (EDF) or Germanys E.ON, widely dubbed as “national champions”, are effectively behaving like local monopolies. Shy of competition, eager for artificially high prices, they are helping to block the efficient generation, transmission and distribution of energy on the continent.  2 Energy prices vary wildly across Europe. Ms Kroes wants to see cheaper energy, and intends to push suppliers to divest their distribution network and to get them to invest more in transportation systems so that more energy—in the form of gas, or electricity, for example—can flow easily over borders. It is remarkably hard, for example, for gas-poor Germany to import from the neighbouring, gas-rich Netherlands. Companies that dominate national markets have, so far, had little interest in improving the interconnections which would mean lower prices for consumers across the continent.  3 Ms Kroes, of course, will struggle to get her way. The European Commission, which on the same day presented its recommendation for improving EU energy policy, also wants to see the unbundling of ownership, the legal separation of energy suppliers and transporters, something that the integrated energy companies and interested governments, notably in France and Germany, are bound to oppose ferociously.  4 Complicating the matter is an argument over the security of energy supply in Europe. Much has been made of the risk for western Europe of depending too heavily on Russian exports of gas. Russia under Vladimir Putin is prone to using energy expor