Question

Read the passage from a speech by Winston Churchill.

“An iron curtain has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe . . . all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow [the Soviet capital].”

–Winston Churchill,
March 5, 1946

Which of the following most accurately restates what Churchill was saying?

The world needs to maintain peaceful relations with the nations of Central and Eastern Europe.
The Soviet Union has taken control of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
People who live in cities in Central and Eastern Europe have begun to use iron curtains.
The United States should invade Central and Eastern Europe to stop the spread of communism.

Answer 1

The Soviet Union has taken control of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

Answer 2

The Soviet Union has taken control of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

Step-by-step explanation:

Iron Curtain is a historical term that refers to the political, ideological, and in some cases also physical, border between Western Europe (Capitalist Bloc) and Eastern Europe (Communist Bloc), after World War II.

Winston Churchill used it to refer to the border, not only physical but also ideological, which divided Europe into two blocks after the Second World War. Churchill popularized the term at a conference in the United States in 1946, when he said:

"From Stettin, in the Baltic, to Trieste, in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has fallen on the continent."

The frontier of which Churchill spoke divided the socialist states, headed politically, economically and militarily by the Soviet Union, and the capitalist states, aligned with the United States.