Will the European Union make it? The question would have sounded strange not long ago. Now even the project’s greatest cheerlead

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问题     Will the European Union make it? The question would have sounded strange not long ago. Now even the project’s greatest cheerleaders talk of a continent facing a "Bermuda triangle" of debt, population decline and lower growth.
    As well as those chronic problems, the EU faces an acute crisis in its economic core, the 16 countries that use the single currency. Markets have lost faith that the euro zone’s economies, weaker or stronger, will one day converge thanks to the discipline of sharing a single currency, which denies uncompetitive members the quick fix of devaluation.
    Yet, the debate about how to save Europe’s single currency from disintegration is stuck. It is stuck because the euro zone’s dominant powers, France and Germany, agree on the need for greater harmonization within the euro zone, but disagree about what to harmonize.
    Germany thinks the euro must be saved by stricter rules on borrowing, spending and competitiveness, backed by quasi-automatic sanctions for governments that do not obey. These might include threats to freeze EU funds for poorer regions and EU mega-projects, and even the suspension of a country’s voting rights in EU ministerial councils. It insists that economic co-ordination should involve all 27 members of the EU club, among whom there is a small majority for free-market liberalism and economic rigor; in the inner core alone, Germany fears, a small majority favour French interference.
    A "southern" camp headed by France wants something different: "European economic government" within an inner core of euro-zone members. Translated, that means politicians intervening in monetary policy and a system of redistribution from richer to poorer members, via cheaper borrowing for governments through common Eurobonds or complete fiscal transfers. Finally, figures close to the French government have murmured, euro-zone members should agree to some fiscal and social harmonization: e.g. curbing competition in corporate-tax rates or labour costs.
    It is too soon to write off the EU. It remains the world’s largest trading block. At its best, the European project is remarkably liberal: built around a single market of 27 rich and poor countries, its internal borders are far more open to goods, capital and labour than any comparable trading area. It is an ambitious attempt to blunt the sharpest edges of globalization, and make capital benign.
The debate over the EU’s single currency is stuck because the dominant powers______.

选项 A、are competing for the leading position
B、are busy handling their won crisis
C、fail to reach an agreement on harmonization
D、disagree on the steps towards disintegration

答案C

解析 本题信息点是The debate over the EU’s single currency is stuck。首先在文章查找该信息点,我们发现该信息点出现在文章第三段第一句:Yet,the debate about how to save Europe’s single currency from disintegration is stuck。根据原因题的解题技巧,我们注意到信息点所在的句子只陈述事实,没有给出原因,那么原因就在下(几)句:It is stuck because the euro zone’s dominant powers,France and Germany,agree on the need for greater harmonization within the euro zone,but disagree about what to harmonize,大意为:这场辩论遇到了困难,因为欧元区的主导国家法国和德国虽然一致认为欧元区需要协调,但是就如何协调却不能达成共识。由此可见,选项C.fail to reach an agreement on harmonization 符合文章内容,为本题答案。
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