【英语时差8,16】中东为何石油丰富？（下）

（单词翻译）

But if oil comes from ocean dwelling¹ organisms, you may ask, why is so much of it concentrated in the dry, arid² Middle East? Because, as you may have guessed, the Middle East was not always a vast desert. Around 100 million years ago the region was covered by what scientists call the Tethys Ocean. Rivers feeding this ancient ocean saturated³ it with nutrients⁴, giving rise to massive numbers of microscopic⁵ animals destined⁶ to be pressure cooked into oil. The Tethys eventually receded⁷ and gave way to the sandy Middle East we know today. But it left behind a reminder⁸ of the area’s watery⁹ past in the form of vast oceans of oil buried beneath the sand.