新概念美音版第四冊 Lesson 13 The search for oil 探尋石油

 


 

Lesson 13  The search for oil 探尋石油

First listen and then answer the following question.
聽錄音，然後回答以下問題。

What do oilmen want to achieve as soon as they strike oil?

    The deepest holes of all made for oil, and they go down to as much as 25,000 feet. But we not need to send men down to get the oil our, as we must with other mineral deposits. The holes are only borings, less than a foot in diameter. My particular experience is largely in oil, and the search for oil has done more to improve deep drilling than any other mining activity. When is has been decided where we are going to drill, we put up at the surface an oil derrick. It has to be tall because it is like a giant block and tackle, and we have to lower into the ground and haul out of the ground great lengths of drill pipe which are rotated by an engine at the top and are fitted with a cutting bit at the bottom.

    The geologist needs to know what rocks the drill has reached, so every so often a sample is obtained with a coring bit. It cuts a clean cylinder of rock, from which can be seen the strata the drill has been cutting through. Once we get down to the oil, it usually flows to the surface because great pressure, either from or water, is pushing it. This pressure must be under control, and we control it by means of the mud which we circulate down the drill pipe. We endeavour to avoid the old, romantic idea of a gusher, which wastes oil and gas. We want it to stay down the hole until we can lead it off in a controlled manner.

       T.F.GASKELL The Search for the Earth's Minerals from Discovery

New words and expressions 生詞和短語

    mineral
adj. 礦物的
    boring
n.  鑽孔
    derrick
n.  井架
    block and tackle
    滑輪組
    haul
v.  拖，拉
    rotate
v.  使轉動
    cutting bit
    鑽頭
    geologist
n.  地質學家
    coring
    取芯鑽頭
    cylinder
n.   圓柱體
    strata
n.  岩層[複]([單]stratum或strata [誤用])
    circulate
v.  注入，環流
    gusher
n.  噴油井

參考譯文

    在所有洞穴中，為尋找石油所鑽出的洞是最深的，這些洞可深達25,000英尺。但是，我們不必像開采其他礦藏那樣，把人送到地下去把石油取出。這些洞隻不過是一些鑽孔，直徑不到1英尺。我是專門搞石油的，尋找石油比其他任何采礦業對改進鑽探作的貢獻都要大。當確定鑽孔地點後，我們就在那裏豎起一個井架。井架必須很高，因為它像一個巨型滑輪組。我們必須把很長的鑽杆一節節地鑽入地下，然後再從地下拉出來。鑽杆頂部安裝的發動機帶動鑽杆旋轉，它的底部裝有鑽頭。

    地質學家需要知道鑽頭已以到達什麽樣的岩層，因此時常要用芯鑽頭取樣。這種鑽頭能切割一段光滑的圓柱形岩石，從中能看出所鑽透的地層。一旦到達油層，石油就會由於地下巨大的壓力流到地麵上來，這種巨大的壓力來自地下天然氣或水。這種壓力必須加以控製，我們讓泥槳順著鑽杆向下循環，用這種方法來控製壓力。我們盡量避免使用陳舊天真的噴井方法，那樣會浪費石油和天然氣。我們要讓石油留在井下，直到我們能用一種有控製的方法把它引上來為止。