Choose the answer that is closest in meaning to the underlined
austerity.
On October 14, 1973, in one of the biggest tank battles in history, Israeli forces routed an invading Egyptian Army, destroying about two hundred and fifty tanks and losing just twenty-five. Two days later, the Israelis—who had been aided by an American airlift of military supplies—crossed over the Suez Canal and into Egypt. In retaliation, the Arab members of OPEC declared an oil embargo against the United States, ordering a series of production cutbacks and royalty increases that tripled the price of oil. Long gas lines became commonplace and the U.S. economy fell into a recession. In a nod to
austerity, Richard Nixon decreed that the national Christmas tree would go unlit.
Thirty years later, we can't see past that darkened tree. The embargo, which lasted only a few months, still shapes the way we think about the politics and economics of oil. Ever since, the spectre of Arab countries using oil as a political weapon has haunted discussions of the Middle East and the global petroleum market, and has kept U.S. policymakers obsessed with “energy security” (which in practice has meant sucking up to the Saudis) and with “energy independence” from what has come to be known, in the Times and elsewhere, as “the axis of oil.”
- economic difficulties
- threats by Arab states
- the dilemma of U.S. policy makers
- comments by U.S journalists
- the recovery of oil markets
