For new countries joining the European Union, and older ones getting used to their dark red passports, becoming "Europeans" is a bit like marrying into a large, eccentric family.    Europeans have a lot in common but it is their differences, not their similarities, that attract the attention of sociologists and market researchers, and are more interesting.    * 35% of Germans live alone, but only 9% of Spaniards. Perhaps this explains why Spaniards lead Europe in the habit of going out for a drink.    * The British attend more adult evening classes than anyone else in Europe, and the Belgians least. So it can't just be the dark evenings. There are no figures on how many Britons go for a drink afterwards. If there were, they might be up at the top with Spain!    * The British think black cats are lucky. Every other European country regards them unlucky.    * The Dutch and Germans are the greatest caravaners , but the Germans like bigger beds in their caravans.    * The French are the most athletic Europeans. Next come the Dutch. But the Belgians, just over the border, play fewest sports.    * The Germans spend twice as much on heating as the Spaniards. Well, of course they do, it's colder.    * Dutch husbands do the household shopping a lot more often than Italians or Spaniards.    * The French are the champion public transport commuters of Europe. If you hate commuting, go and live in the Netherlands, where journeys to work are shorter than anywhere else.    * The amount of direct eye-contact between strangers is three times greater among Spaniards than it is among the British or Swedes. Sharing a lift is torture for both the British and the Swedish.      * No European countries really agree with any other about how to make good coffee. All of them are different.    There are exceptions to all these rules. Deal with them in the spirit of my 8-year-old daughter. "If you don't understand each other's language, you just laugh a lot, and eat, and point at things." We can know from the passage that   _  .
sociologists are most interested in the idea of the European Union all the European countries are not willing to join the European Union Europeans have a lot more differences than similarities trade opportunities exist in the cultural differences in the European Union