One of the most widely discussed subjects these days is energy crisis. Automobile drivers

cannot get gasoline; homeowners may not get enough heating oil; factories are 【C1】______ by a fuel shortage.

The crisis has 【C2】______ questions about the large oil companies and windfall 【C3】______ . Critics of the oil industry charge that the major companies are getting richer because of the oil shortage. Shortage, of course, drives prices up. As oil prices rise, the critics say, the oil companies will make more money (windfall profits) without doing a thing to 【C4】______ the extra cash. "Windfall" profits are sudden unearned profits-profits made 【C5】______ luck, or some special turn of events.

The word itself tells what "windfall" means-- something blown down by the wind, such as trees, or fruit 【C6】______ from trees. But the word has taken on a special meaning. This meaning (getting something unearned) was first used in medieval England.

This is 【C7】______ it started: at that time much of the land was in the hands of 【C8】______ barons. The rest of the people, commoners, lived and worked on their vast estates. They planted the seed, cared for the farm animals and harvested the crops. Not all the land, however, was used for farming. Every baron kept a large private forest for 【C9】______ deer and wild bear.

When hungry, the people sometimes would kill the animals in the lord's forest for food. And there were times 【C10】______ they might cut down trees for fuel. So, strong laws were passed to protect the forests, and the animals. Violations were severely 【C11】______ .

But there was one way people could get wood from the forest. If they found trees blown down by the wind ("windfall") they were free to take them for use as fuel in their homes. And that is the meaning that has come down to us-something good gotten by luck or 【C12】______ .

The common people of old England, often hungry and cold, must often have prayed for a good strong wind. Critics today 【C13】______ that the oil industry has also been praying for something just like it -some political or military 【C14】______ that might produce a windfall-- a rise in oil prices and profits.

The oil companies deny that this is so. In Congress, critics of the oil companies have proposed a 【C15】______ on such profits. The debate on rising oil price will go on for some time, and most likely we will hear more and more about windfall profits.

【C1】______

A．threatened

B．claimed

C．explored

D．narrowed