托福阅读机经背景：美国煤炭遭遇的燃眉之急.docxVIP

智课网TOEFL备考资料托福阅读机经背景：美国煤炭遭遇的燃眉之急 A FREIGHT train, its dozen cars loaded with coal covered in a light dusting of snow, snaked through the narrow valley, sometimes following the two-lane highway and sometimes crossing it. The valley was silent and snowy, and though it was two days into 2012 it could easily have been 1982, 1942 or 1922: coal has been mined in Appalachia and carried out by rail for well over a century. 一列货运火车装载着十二车煤炭，煤炭上覆盖着一层薄薄的白雪，火车迂回地行进于狭窄的山谷之间，时而沿着这一条双车道高速公路行驶，时而又穿过那一条。峡谷寂静而多雪，尽管这已经是进入2012年以来的的第二天了，然而在阿帕拉契亚，这样的一天也可以发生在1982年,1942年或者是1922年：一个世纪以来，煤炭在这里挖掘，并不断用火车运走。 And by some measures, coal is still going strong. It provides more of America’s electricity than any other fuel. Production has fallen off since 2008, but it remains high, as do prices, for which thank the developing world’s appetite. In Appalachia, coal remains a source of well-paid jobs in a region that needs them: for the first three quarters of 2011 employment in the Appalachian coal industry was at its highest level since 1997. And the Powder River Basin, which spans Wyoming and Montana, has become America’s major source of coal in the past decade, relieving overmined Kentucky and West Virginia. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reckons America has enough coal to meet current demand levels for the next 200 years. 然而在某种程度上，煤炭业依旧很昌盛。较比其他的燃料，煤炭为美国提供了更多的电力资源。自2008年以来，煤炭产量逐渐减少，但仍能维持较高的生产量，而且价格也没有大幅跌落，这都得益于发展中国家对于煤炭的广泛需求。在阿帕拉契亚那些需要煤炭的地区，煤炭一直是高收入工作的主要来源：在2011年的前三个季度，煤炭产业的就业状况达到了其自1997年以来的最高水准。在过去十年里，横跨怀俄明州和蒙大纳的粉河盆地已经成为了美国重要的煤炭来源，缓解了肯塔基州和西弗吉尼亚州的重度开采。能源信息管理局则认为，美国有足够的煤炭来满足其未来200年的需求。 But if the raw numbers look good, the trends tell a different story. Regulatory uncertainty and the emergence of alternative fuel sources (natural gas and renewables) will probably make America’s future far less coal-reliant than its past. In 2000 America got 52% of its electricity from coal; in 2010 that number was 45%. Robust as exports are, they account for less than one-tenth of American