名人教英文：活用复合词
上周谈到，欧债问题给欧洲一体化进程蒙上阴影。geopolitical weekly评论员george friedman指出，基于历史因素，要统一欧洲，向来障碍重重。他的分析自15世纪末欧洲崛起开始。他认为远航技术的出现是欧洲发展的转折点，因为航海技术不但促进欧洲的内河贸易，加快经济和科技发展，而且让欧洲人得以征服世界上其他地方，获取更多资源：
"the ability to engage in long-range shipping safely allowed businesses on the continent's various navigable rivers to interact easily with each other, magnifying the rivers' capital-generation capacity. deep-water navigation also allowed many of the european nations to conquer vast extra-european empires. and the close proximity of those nations combined with ever more wealth allowed for technological innovation and advancement at a pace theretofore unheard of anywhere on the planet. as a whole, europe became very rich, became engaged in very far-flung empire-building that redefined the human condition and became very good at making war. in short order, europe went from being a cultural and economic backwater to being the engine of the world."