When European Union (EU) leaders took delivery of Europe’s first draft of a constitution at a summit in Greece last June, it was with almost universal praise.
There was wide agreement that the text could save the EU from paralysis once it expands from 15 to 25 members next year. It would give Europe a more stable leadership and greater clout on the world stage, said the chairman of the Convention which drafted the agreement, former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing.
Such praise was too good to last. As the product of a unique 16-month public debate, the draft has become a battleground. Less than four months after it was delivered, the same leaders who accepted it opened the second round of talks on its content this week by trading veiled threats to block agreement or cut off funds if they don’t get their way.
The tone was polite, but unyielding. In a bland joint statement issued when the talks opened on October 4, the leaders stre
A. the bigger size that EU will have in the future
B. the disproportionate voting rights of some small states
C. the fierce disagreement among its member countries
D. the threat from some leaders who want their ways
You hear the refrain all the time: the U.S. economy looks good statistically, but it doesn’t feel good. Why doesn’t ever-greater wealth promote ever-greater happiness It is a question that dates at least to the appearance in 1958 of The Affluent (富裕的) Society by John Kenneth Galbraith, who died recently at 97.
The Affluent Society is a modern classic because it helped define a new moment in the human condition. For most of history, “hunger, sickness, and cold” threatened nearly everyone, Galbraith wrote. “Poverty was found everywhere in that world. Obviously it is not of ours.” After World War II, the dread of another Great Depression gave way to an economic boom. In the 1930s unemployment had averaged 18.2 percent; in the 1950s it was 4.5 percent.
To Galbraith, materialism had gone mad and would breed discontent. Through advertising, companies conditioned consumers to buy things they didn’t really want or need. Because so
A. Renewed economic security.
B. A sense of self-fulfillment.
C. New conflicts and complaints.
D. Misery and anti-social behavior.
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