2016届高考英语高分冲刺特训听力素材3（word版）20_高考复习指南

2016届高考英语高分冲刺特训听力素材3（word版）20

　　Yamani was appointed to the post of Saudi Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources in 1962, and it was then he began leading the campaign to wrest control of Arab oil resources from foreign-owned companies. He was only thirty-two years old when he took over his country's oil ministry. But he was then among the few Saudis to have had higher western education, including, in his case, legal training at Harvard. Although Yamani was only a commoner in the Kingdom, some members of the royal family had begun to recognize the contribution such a technocrat could make to the Saudi government. Then crown prince Faisal, later the King, championed young Yamani and gave him a clear mandate to do whatever necessary to keep his country's oil benefits home in Saudi Arabia. A natural diplomat, Yamani quickly became the unproclaimed leader of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries as well as the global cartel, OPEC. In November and December of 1973, Sheik Yamani toured western capitals to explain OPEC's radical policies, including why oil prices were going to go up by 70%.

　　His announcement shocked the world and his name became an international household word. In London, one journalist wrote at the time that Sheik Yamani of Saudi Arabia was the most formidable eastern emissary to arrive in Europe since the Tartars swept into Russia or the Muslim hordes reached the walls of Vienna in the Middle Ages. In 1975, Yamani was the target when terrorists seized OPEC headquarters in Vienna and took the ministers hostage for several days. Ever since, then, Yamani surrounded himself with tough British bodyguards, and he kept his movements secret. Whenever he was seen abroad, he appeared as a superstar with his entourage.