• How many enlargements has the European Union had already?
• Why is the coming enlargement the largest ever?
• For what reason does the U.S. government support E.U. enlargement?
• Why are U.S. businesses likely to benefit from the coming enlargement?
• When will the accession negotiations be concluded? When will the candidate nations join the E.U.?
• What are the Copenhagen criteria? What are the Maastricht criteria?
• How big will the population be after the enlargement?
• What chapters of the acquis seem to be controversial?
• Which is the largest in terms of population and Gross Domestic Product, of the twelve candidate nations?
• Which of the EU members will benefit most and which will lose after the enlargement, and why?
• Why should candidate nations benefit from the enlargement and what is the pre-condition if they want to make the gain?
• What do the simulation results and those of previous analysis show?
• What have the previous enlargements shown, which other nations can learn and benefit from?

• 过去十五年间，计算机产业经历了一些重大的变化。 (undergo)
• 坚持法治是一条非常重要的原则。(adherence)
• 偷盗者们不会从不义之财中得到好处。 (benefit from)
• 在大多数情况下，学校的环境会强化家庭的影响。(reinforce)
• 政府在那个词藻华丽的演讲中做出了许多承诺，但在许多人看来，这些承诺空洞无物。 (make a commitment)
• 政府一直在鼓励个人去选择退出国家养老金计划。(opt out of)
• 这房子照现在的情况可以卖50万元。（as it stands）
• 今年的收入与去年相比有很大的提高。 (vis-à-vis)
• 警察没有公布任何涉案人员的名字。 (release)
• 国内市场的复苏很缓慢，投资者感到沮丧。(lagging)
• 这座城市反映了西方文明中许多最辉煌的时刻. (mirror)
• 但是，如果价格继续下跌的话，你可能也要赔钱了。 (stand to lose)

For more than 40 years, the iron curtain divided the continent of Europe between a prosperous and free west and an impoverished and oppressed east. The European Economic Community, originally made up of six members, gradually expanded to take in almost all of the western part of the continent. More recently, it signaled its growing integration by changing its name to the European Union. When communism collapsed and the iron curtain came down in 1989, the EU pledged to embrace the countries of the east by admitting them to its club. This, it was hoped, would spread the peace, stability and prosperity enjoyed in the west to the east and “reunify” the continent. More than a decade later, the Union looks likely at last to make good on its promise.

The enlargement of the EU is intended to erase the east-west division left by the cold war, but it is also about binding the wounds remaining from the Second World War. The creation in the 1950s of what became the European Union was intended, above all, to make any further wars between France and Germany unthinkable. But the Second World War started in the east, with Germany’s invasion of Poland. For the Germans in particular, bringing Poland “into Europe” is a historic task.