Read the following text and decide which answer best fits each space. For questions 26-45, mark one letter A, B, C or D on your Answer Sheet. As Oil Declines, So does America More than 100 years ago, America’s first great economic【C1】______abroad was spearheaded by its giant oil companies, notably John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company. These companies【C2】______powerful beachheads in Mexico and Venezuela, and later in parts of Asia, North Africa and, of course, the Middle East.【C3】______they became ever more dependent on the extraction of oil in distant lands, American foreign policy began to be【C4】______around acquiring and protecting US oil concessions in major【C5】______areas. With World War II and the Cold War, oil and US national【C6】______became thoroughly intertwined. After all, the United States had prevailed over the Axis【C7】______in significant part because it possessed vast reserves of domestic petroleum, while Germany and Japan lacked them, depriving their forces of vital【C8】______supplies in the final years of the war. As it happened, though, the United States was using up its domestic【C9】______so rapidly that, even before World War II was over, Washington【C10】______its attention to finding new overseas sources of crude oil that could be【C11】______under American control. As a result, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and a host of other Middle Eastern producers would become key US oil suppliers【C12】______American military protection. There can be【C13】______question that, for a time, American domination of world oil production would prove a potent source of economic and military power.【C14】______World War II, an abundance of cheap US oil spurred the【C15】______of vast new industries, including civilian air travel, highway construction, a【C16】______of suburban housing and commerce, mechanized agriculture, and plastics. Abundant oil also underlay the global expansion of the country’s【C17】______power, as the Pentagon defended the world while becoming one of the planet’s great oil guzzlers. Its global dominion came to【C18】______on an ever-expanding array of oil-powered ships, planes, tanks and missiles. As long as the Middle East — and especially Saudi Arabia — served essentially as an American gas station and oil【C19】______a cheap commodity, all this was relatively painless. That is why the use of military force has been a【C20】______of American foreign policy since 1987.【C4】