参考答案：B

解析：[听力原文]36-40 World oil demand is slowing down, led by weaker economic growth in the U.S. and China, the International Energy Agency said Wednesday. While the agency didn’t say high oil prices are damping demand, weaker economic growth is projected in the world’s leading economies, as the U.S. and China lose steam from earlier strength this year and Japan’s rebound is cast in doubt as investors worry about inflationary pressures caused by the high cost of energy. For the first time in more than half a year of constant upward revisions, the IEA, advisor to the world’s biggest economies, didn’t change its forecasts for how much more oil the world will need. But it did increase its estimated overall demand by 750,000 barrels a day, reflecting changes to historical data stretching back 10 years. That left world oil demand in 2004 at 82.2 million b/d, up 2.53 million b/d on the year. Growth will moderate in 2005 to 2.2%, or 1.8 million b/d, at 84 million b/d. A global slowdown is beginning to affect oil demand, according to IEA figures. Government efforts to cool down China’s overheating economy will cut oil demand growth more than half from 24.6% in the second quarter to 9% in the third, the IEA said. But uncertainty remains about the future in China where restrictions on trucking and economic growth could push down demand, while extra refining capacity could boost it.

[分析]： 因果关系的判断。 根据原文第一段最后一句“...Japan’s rebound is cast in doubt as investors worry about inflationary pressures caused by the high cost of energy.”即“日本的反弹蒙上阴影，因为投资者担心能源费用过高而带来的通货膨胀压力”，由此可见，选项b的说法是正确的。[解题关键] 掌握信号词，正确判断语义逻辑关系。上句中信号词as和 caused by均表明了上下文存在因果关系。