英译汉：

　　In 2011 the chancellor surprised everyone by increasing the supplementary tax by 12 points to 32% (afterwards lowered to 30%). This might have netted the hard-up chancellor a windfall of about 2 billion (3 billion) but, so argue many in the industry, the tax rise also deterred companies from sinking any more money into an ageing basin where it had already become very expensive to operate. With margins wafer thin, North Sea oil and gas production, which had been falling steadily since its peak in 1999, plummeted between 2011 and 2013, before recovering slightly last year. Just as importantly, new exploration has crawled almost to a halt. This year it is expected that as few as eight new exploratory wells might be drilled. One consequence is that the once mighty North Sea oil and gas sector has become increasingly marginal to the overall British economy. In 2011-12 North Sea tax revenues totalled 10.9 billion, but in 2013-14 they had shrunk to just 4.7 billion.

　　2011年，这位大臣将附加税率提升了12个百分点，达到了32%(后来又降到了30%)，这令所有人大吃一惊。经济拮据的大臣也许能借此获得一笔约20亿英镑(30亿美元)的意外款项，但是该产业的许多公司也辩称税率上涨阻止了公司将更多的钱扔进这经营昂贵、日趋衰落的领域打水漂。北海的油气生产利润微薄，自1999年达到顶峰后一直保持逐年下降，在2011年和2013年之间骤跌，去年才微弱回升。另一个重要的原因是，新油田的探测也步步维艰到达瓶颈期。今年预计只有八块新油田将会得到开采。一个结果就是曾叱咤风云的北海油气产业会在整体英国经济中越来越边缘化。2011年到2012年间，北海税收总计109亿英镑，但在2013年到2014年，缩减到了47亿。