2014年6月大学英语四级冲刺试题及答案(第三套)_第4页

　　Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage.

　　In California the regulators, the utilities and the governor all want the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to cap spot (现货的) market prices. The Californians claim it will rein in outrageous prices. Federal regulators have refused. The battle is on.

　　Governor Gray Davis says,“I’m not happy with the Federal Regulatory Commission at all. They’re living in an ivory tower. If their bills were going up like the people in San Diego, they would know that this is a real problem in the real world.”

　　As part of deregulation, price caps were removed to allow for a free market. Timing is everything; natural gas prices had already skyrocketed. Demand was high from California’s booming economy. No new power plants had been built here in ten years, and power producers had the right to hike prices along with demand. And hike them they did.

　　Loretta Lynch of the Public Utilities Commission says,” This commission and all of California was beating down the door of federal regulators to say‘help us impose reasonable price caps to help to keep our market stable.”

　　Federal regulators did ask for longer-term contracts between power producers and the utilities to stabilize prices. The federal commission, unavailable for comment on this story, released a recent statement defending its position not to re-regulate.

　　Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Dec. 15,2000: “The commission?s intention is to enable the markets to catch up to current supply and demand problems and not to reintroduce command and control regulation that has helped to produce the current crisis.”

　　Some energy experts believe that, without temporary price caps, the crisis will continue.

　　Severin Borenstein of the U.C. Energy Institute says,“Some federal regulators have a blind commitment to making the market work and I think part of the problem is they really don?t understand what?s going on.”

　　Gary Ackerman of the Western Power Trading Forum says,“He’s dead wrong about that. The federal regulators understand far better than any individual state that, though it might be painful and it certainly is painful in California, price caps don’t work. They never work.”

　　16. The battle between Californians and federal regulators is about .

　　A) control over the price of power

　　B) necessity of removing price caps

　　C) hiking the energy prices in California

　　D) a regulation concerning power supply

　　17. Governor Gray Davis was dissatisfied with the Federal Regulatory Commission because .

　　A) they did not know what the real problem was

　　B) they were living an easy life in an ivory tower

　　C) they could not experience the life in San Diego

　　D) they turned a blind eye to the situation in California

　　18. The Federal Commission uncapped the energy price with the intention to .

　　A) help California’s economy booming steadily

　　B) prevent power price from going up any further

　　C) enable the market to deal with supply and demand problems

　　D) have contracts signed between power producers and the utilities

　　19. To help keep prices from going higher, people and groups in California .

　　A) imposed reasonable price caps

　　B) beat down the door of federal regulators

　　C) urged the federal authorities to take action

　　D) struggled against federal policy to hike prices

　　20. Energy experts against price caps believe that .

　　A) the present situation in California will continue unless there is price control

　　B) the current crisis is partly attributed to previous command and control policy

　　C) price caps can temporarily solve energy problems an individual state meets with

　　D) they do understand what is going on in California and will take proper measures