Past and future are the lasting dimensions of our lives: the present is but a brief moment. So these visions about the future also contain our past; in Star Wars，battles are fought around issues that also motivated man in the past. Thus，any vision about the future is really based on visions of the past，because that is all we can know for certain.
As our religious myths about the future never went beyond Judgment Day，so our modern myths about the future cannot go beyond the search for life’s deeper meaning. The reason is that only as long as the choice between good and evil remains man’s supreme moral problem does life retain that special dignity that derives from our ability to choose between the two. A world in which this conflict has been permanently resolved eliminates man as we know him. It might be a universe peopled by angels，but it has no place for man.
The moving picture is a visual art，based on sight. Speaking to our vision，it ought to provide us with the visions enabling us to live the good life; it ought to give us insight into ourselves. About a hundred years ago，Tolstoy wrote,“Art is a human activity having for its purpose the transmission to others of the highest and best feelings to which men have risen.” Later，Robert Frost defined poetry as “beginning in delight and ending in wisdom.” Thus it might be said that the state of the art of the moving image can be assessed by the degree to which it meets the mythopoetic task of giving us myths suitable to live by in our time—visions that transmit to us the highest and best feelings to which men have risen—and by how well the moving images give us that delight which leads to wisdom. Let us hope that the art of the moving image, this most genuine American art，will soon meet the challenge of becoming truly the great art of our age.
26. In the author’s view，science-fiction movies
�。跘］ assure us of the scientific miracles created.
�。跙］ predict likely advances in human experiences.
�。跜］ offer invented stories concerning man’s fate.
�。跠］ signify human powers to a fantastic extent.
27. In science-fiction movies,man can find
［A］ fantasies that may relieve his anxiety for future existence.
［B］ forecasts that his domination will be extended indefinitely.
�。跜］ promises that his swelling demands will be fully satisfied.
�。跠］ assurances that confirm the importance of moral principles.
28. The movies such as Star Wars
�。跘］ fail to reflect contemporary problems for their transience.
�。跙］ fail to free their subjects from issues of man’s concerns.
�。跜］ succeed in depicting magic scenes irrelevant to the past.
［D］ succeed in offering imaginary visions irrespective of reality.
29. The theme of modern myths could be drastically changed
�。跘］ only if the struggle for good life were fully discarded.
［B］ if only the conflict between good and evil had ceased.
�。跜］ on condition that man as he is now became extinct.
�。跠］ provided that average people were converted to angels.
30. The quotes from Tolstoy are used to
�。跘］ reinforce the author’s account about visual art.
［B］ provide fresh points about the moving picture.
�。跜］ define the basic characteristics of art activities.
［D］ describe the requirements for the art transmission.
Text3
Depletion is a natural phenomenon that characterizes the development of all non-renewable resources and oil in particular. Narrowly speaking, depletion refers to the decline of production associated with a particular field, reservoir, or well. If it were not for changes in prices, costs, and technology, depletion of the world’s resources would resemble the simple decline curve of a single well.
Estimates of oil resources by field are routinely made by geologists and engineers, but the estimates are a “best guess” given the available data and are revised as more knowledge becomes available. There is no time frame or probability associated with estimates of total resources in place. In contrast, proved reserves of crude oil are the estimated quantities that are demonstrated with reasonable certainty to be recoverable in the future from known reservoirs under existing economic and operating conditions.
Each year, production is taken from proved reserves, reducing both proved reserves and the total resource. Innovative production techniques such as well recompletions, secondary and tertiary enhanced recovery techniques, and expanded production of unconventional resources have reduced net depletion rates at the well and field levels. Advanced exploration and drilling techniques have reduced the cost of finding new pools, reduced the risk of dry holes and their costs, and allowed new pools to be developed and produced more quickly. More rapid production of resources from a field increases the return on capital because earnings are realized sooner, and therefore, discounted less.
Higher returns make some fields that are too expensive to develop under “normal” circumstances economically feasible, because reduced costs allow firms to make profits where they could not before. On the other hand, more rapid development and production of a field by definition increases the rate of depletion. While the rate of depletion increases with technological progress, the adverse effects of depletion are diminished, and higher levels of production can be maintained for longer periods of time. As depletion leads producers to abandon older fields and develop new ones, the process of developing domestic oil resources leads producers to find and develop the larger, more economical fields first. Later fields tend to be less desirable because they are farther away from existing infrastructure or smaller in size. Thus, as time progresses more effort is required to produce the same level of the resource from the same exploration area.
While the frontier for new resources is diminishing, increased innovation has, thus far, served to offset depletion at least partially, keeping production stronger than it would have been in the absence of the innovations. But eventually, as field sizes decrease, the ultimate recovery from discovered fields will shrink. Thus, despite technological improvements, ultimate recovery from the average field of the future will be smaller than from the average field today.
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