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Oil Price Drop Has Mixed Effects on Texas

Oil rig workers, known as roughnecks, face unemployment as oil prices fall, but the impact is greater in regions like Alaska and North Dakota, where production costs are higher than they are in the Eagle Ford shale area of south-central Texas.

Business has even picked up at Rooster Safety in Pleasanton, Texas, where roughnecks buy gloves, helmets and protective gear.

Store owner James Strange said he'd been getting orders from company purchasing agents who were content with paying more to established suppliers when oil prices were high.

“Now that oil prices are dropping and people want to watch their budgets, they are willing to take an extra 30 minutes to create an account with us so that they can start purchasing and save some money,” he said.

By keeping costs low, some projects in south-central Texas can remain profitable as long as the price of oil stays above $40 a barrel.

Economist Adam Perdue at the University of Houston's Institute for Regional Forecasting, who studies the impact of the slowdown on Texas, said that “exploration and production budgets are being cut anywhere from 10 to 50 percent, with most of them being about 30 percent.”

He said Houston's economy, which experienced 5 percent growth in recent years, would be affected by the lower spending.

“We are predicting there will be 20,000 fewer jobs than there would have been otherwise," Perdue said. "So, we are still predicting growth in the Houston area. It is just going to slow down to a more reasonable rate of just under 2 percent.”

The slowdown will also affect companies that make pipes and fittings for oil exploration and production, as well as trucking companies that supply sand and chemicals for hydraulic fracturing and many other small businesses that serve the energy industry.

But low oil prices are a stimulus to chemical producers that use hydrocarbons to make everything from solvents to fertilizer and plastics. Perdue said new chemical plant construction near Houston would keep many skilled workers employed.

“A lot of these roughnecks that are going to lose their jobs out there in the field are going to be able to come home and get a welding job or a construction job,” he said.

Perdue said oil company analysts see prices rising again in six months or so as the market glut from expanded production decreases.

But, he said, if those assumptions are wrong and oil prices continue to fall, the impact on Houston and Texas in general will be much worse.

词汇解析

critical

难度：4星核心词汇，属常用3000词

英汉解释

adj.批评的；挑剔的；决定性的；危险的

adj.临界的

参考例句

用作形容词 (adj.)

It is difficult enough to be critical of our own mistakes.

对我们自己的错误采取批评的态度确实非常困难。

These materials become quite soft and flexible above critical temperature.

这些材料在临界温度以上变得十分柔软和易于弯曲。

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immediate

难度：3星常用词汇，属常用6000词

英汉解释

adj.直接的；最接近的；立即的；目前的

参考例句

用作形容词 (adj.)

The evidence has no immediate bearing on the case.

该证据与本案无直接关系。

Today's immediate problem is one of distribution of both food and income.

目前面临的紧迫问题是食物分配和收入分配问题。

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impact

难度：4星核心词汇，属常用3000词

英汉解释

n.影响；冲击力；撞击

vt.挤入；压紧；撞击；对 ... 发生影响

vi.冲击；撞击；产生影响

参考例句

用作名词 (n.)

But what these people fail to see is that international tourism may bring about a disastrous impact on our environment and local history.

但是这些人忽视了国际旅游可能会给当地环境和历史造成的灾难性的影响。

用作及物动词 (vt.)

There is a special tool to impact the road when it is under construction so the base is solid.

有种特殊的工具可以在道路修筑过程中将路面压紧，因此，路基是结实的。

用作不及物动词 (vi.)

The company's performance was impacted by the high value of the pound.

公司的业绩受到了英镑高值的冲击。

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respond

难度：4星核心词汇，属常用3000词

英汉解释

v.回答；响应；反应；反应灵敏；反响

n.[建]壁联；[宗]应唱圣歌

参考例句

用作动词 (v.)

I invited her to dinner but she did not respond.

我请她吃晚饭，但她未作回答。

The professor lectured with a beaming countenance, but the students didn't respond much, only agreeing with what he said.

教授讲得眉飞色舞，学生们却没有太大的反响，只是随声应和。

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hardware

难度：4星核心词汇，属常用3000词

英汉解释

n.五金器具；[计] 硬件；武器装备

参考例句

用作名词 (n.)

They carried a vast inventory of hardware.

他们带着大量的五金器具存货。

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solar

难度：4星核心词汇，属常用3000词

英汉解释

adj.太阳的；太阳能的

参考例句

用作形容词 (adj.)

The sun is the center of our solar system.

太阳是太阳系的中心

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exposure

难度：3星常用词汇，属常用6000词

英汉解释

n.暴露；揭露；胶片；曝光时间；(在电视、报纸等媒体上的)亮相；挨冻

参考例句

用作名词 (n.)

The girl is very pleased to take exposure on TV singing program.

这个女孩对在电视歌唱节目上露面非常高兴。

He nearly died of exposure on the cold mountain.

他在寒冷的高山上差一点没有冻死。

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