- Name one U.S. territory.
Answer:
- Puerto Rico
- American Samoa
- Guam
- U.S. Virgin Islands
Northern Mariana Islands Explanation:When most people think of the United States, they think about the 50 states, but they often forget that other parts of the world are part of the United States, too. A U.S. territory is an area of land that belongs to the U.S. government but is not a state or the country’s capital, Washington, DC. Right now there are five U.S. territories: Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam. Three of these territories – Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands – are in the Pacific Ocean. The other two territories – Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands – are in the Atlantic Ocean.
Those territories are unincorporated, which means that the land belongs to the United States, but only certain parts of the U.S. Constitution (or the country’s most important legal document) are applied to those territories. The territories have to follow some parts of the Constitution, but they do not have to follow all of it. Let’s take a look at what this means for one territory, Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory in 1898 at the end of the Spanish-American War. Spain ceded (or gave) Puerto Rico to the United States. Since then, Puerto Rico has been a U.S. territory. The head of state (or most important political leader) of Puerto Rico is the president of the United States. But Puerto Rico also has its own government which mirrors (or is very similar to) the U.S. government. Puerto Rico’s government has three branches or parts just like the U.S. government does. These branches are the executive (which enforces laws), the legislative (which makes laws), and the judicial (which decides what laws mean). In the United States, the head or leader of the executive branch is the president. In Puerto Rico, the head of the executive branch is called a governor.
The 50 states in the United States have representation in Congress (or the national government), meaning that people from those states can vote in the national legislature. As a territory, Puerto Rico doesn’t have this same representation, but it does have a nonvoting delegate, which is a person who is elected to be part of the U.S. Congress but cannot vote there.
An interesting thing is that Puerto Ricans who live in Puerto Rico are prohibited from voting in the U.S. presidential elections, meaning that they cannot help decide who will be the next U.S. president. But Puerto Ricans who live in a U.S. state can vote to decide who will be the next U.S. president.
- 说出一个美国领土。
答:
*波多黎各
*美属萨摩亚
*关岛
*美属维尔京群岛
*北马里亚纳群岛
解释:当大多数人想到美国,他们想到50个州,但他们经常忘记,这个世界的另外一些地区也是美国的一部分。美国领土是一块属于美国政府的土地，但不是一个州或国家的首都华盛顿特区。目前美国有五个领土:波多黎各、美属维尔京群岛、美属萨摩亚、北马里亚纳群岛和关岛。其中三个地区——关岛、美属萨摩亚和北马里亚纳群岛——位于太平洋。其他两个地区——波多黎各和美属维尔京群岛——位于大西洋。
这些地区未立案,这意味着土地属于美国,但只有美国宪法的某些部分(或国家最重要的法律文件)应用于这些地区。领土必须遵守宪法的某些部分，但它们不必遵守全部。让我们来看看这对一个地区波多黎各意味着什么。
波多黎各成为美国领土是在1898年美西战争的结束。西班牙把波多黎各割让给美国。从那时起，波多黎各就是美国的领土。波多黎各的国家元首(或最重要的政治领袖)是美国的总统。但波多黎各也有自己的政府，与美国政府相似。波多黎各政府有三个分支或部分，就像美国政府一样。这些部门是行政部门(执行法律)、立法部门(制定法律)和司法部门(决定法律的含义)。在美国，行政部门的领导是总统。在波多黎各，行政部门的首脑被称为总督。
在美国，50个州有各自的代表在国会(或中央政府),这意味着人们在这些州可以为国家立法机关投票。作为一个领地，波多黎各没有这样的代表，但它有一个无投票权的代表，这个人被选为美国国会的一部分，但不能在那里投票。
有趣的是波多黎各人居住在波多黎各被禁止在美国总统选举投票,这意味着他们不能帮助决定谁将成为下一个美国总统。但是居住在美国任一个州的波多黎各人可以投票决定谁将成为下一任美国总统。
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- Name one state that borders Canada.
Answer:
- Maine
- New Hampshire
- Vermont
- New York
- Pennsylvania
- Ohio
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- North Dakota
- Montana
- Idaho
- Washington
- Alaska
Explanation:Canada, which is just to the north of the United States, or immediately north of the United States, shares a border (or separating line) with 13 U.S. states. The border is 5,522 miles (or 8,891 kilometers) long, which makes it the longest border between two countries in the world. It includes the long border on the southern end of Canada and also the border between Canada and the state of Alaska, in northwestern Canada.
The U.S.-Canadian border is non-militarized, meaning that the U.S. and Canadian armies are not usually on the border. The border is also not normally patrolled, so people from the government are not usually watching the border to look for problems. However, there are 140 customs stations on the border, which are places where a government official (or a person who works for the government) asks people why they are entering the country and what they are bringing with them to make sure that they aren’t buying things in one country and selling them in the other country. Every year, the U.S.-Canadian border is crossed more than 100 million times.
The U.S.-Canadian border has changed many times. The first border between the two countries was demarcated (or drawn on a map) in 1783. The last time the border was changed was in 1903. Today there are no border disputes or disagreements about where one country ends and the other country begins.
- 问:举出一个与加拿大接壤的州。
答:
*缅因州
*新罕布什尔州
*佛蒙特州
*纽约
*宾夕法尼亚
*俄亥俄州
*密歇根
*明尼苏达州
*北达科他州
*蒙大拿
*爱达荷州
*华盛顿
*阿拉斯加
解释:加拿大,与美国北部13个州接壤,。边界长达5522英里(或8891公里)，是世界上最长的两国边界。它包括加拿大南端的长边界，以及加拿大西北部的加拿大和阿拉斯加州之间的边界。
美加边境是非军事化的，这意味着美国和加拿大军队通常不在边境上。边界通常也不巡逻，所以来自政府的人通常不监视边界寻找问题。然而,有140个边境海关站,这是地方政府官员(或为政府工作的人)问人们为什么他们进入该国,他们带着他们,以确保他们不在一个国家买东西,在其他国家销售。每年，美国美国和加拿大的边境被越境超过1亿次。
美国美加边境已经改变了很多次。两国的第一道边界是在1783年划定的。边界最后一次改变是在1903年。今天，一个国家的边界在哪里结束，另一个国家的边界在哪里开始，并没有边界争端或分歧。
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- Name one state that borders Mexico.
Answer:• California
• Arizona• New Mexico
• Texas
Explanation:The border between the United States and Mexico is the international border that is crossed more often than any other international border in the world. It stretches (or reaches) 1,969 miles (or 3,169 kilometers) and touches four U.S. states: Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas. There are about 250 million legal crossings every year, and many more that are illegal (or against the law).
When the Mexican-American War ended in 1848, Mexico and the United States signed an official agreement called the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The Treaty put the border between the two countries on the Rio Grande and the Colorado River. In that same agreement, Mexico ceded (or gave away) more than half of its land, or about 525,000 square miles (or 1.36 million square kilometers), to the United States.
About 80,000 Mexicans lived in that area when the land was transferred and its ownership changed from Mexico to the United States. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo gave those Mexicans U.S. citizenship. In that same treaty, the United States also agreed to honor (or respect) the property rights (or the ownership of land) of the Mexicans who lived in the land that was transferred from Mexico to the United States. However, there are many cases (or stories) where the United States did not honor those property rights and those Mexican Americans sometimes complain, saying that what the United States did was unfair.
Today, most of the southwestern United States is on land that used to belong to Mexico, and many of the people who live there are descendants (or grandchildren and great-grandchildren) of the people who lived there when the land was still part of Mexico. Mexican traditions (or old way of doing things) still affect life in those areas today. In fact, Mexican culture and traditions have had so much influence (or effect) on the southwestern United States that a style of cooking called Tex-Mex, which is short for Texas-Mexican, has become very popular not only in that part of the country, but all over the United States.
- 问:举出一个与墨西哥接壤的州。
答:•加州
•亚利桑那•新墨西哥
•德州
解释:美国和墨西哥之间跨越的边界比世界上任何其他国际边界跨越的更多的边界。它绵延1969英里(或3169公里)，涉及美国四个州:亚利桑那州、加利福尼亚州、新墨西哥州和得克萨斯州。每年大约有2亿5千万的合法越境，还有更多的非法越境。
当美墨战争于1848年结束时，墨西哥和美国签署了一份官方协议，名为《瓜达卢佩伊达尔戈条约》。条约把两国的边界划定在格兰德河和科罗拉多河上。在同一份协议中，墨西哥将其一半以上的土地，即52.5万平方英里(136万平方公里)割让给了美国。
大约有8万墨西哥人居住在这片土地转让时，土地的所有权从墨西哥转移到美国。瓜达卢佩伊达尔戈条约授予这些墨西哥人美国公民身份。在同一条约中，美国还同意尊重居住在从墨西哥转移到美国的土地上的墨西哥人的财产权(或土地所有权)。然而，在许多案例(或故事)中，美国没有尊重这些财产权，那些墨西哥裔美国人有时会抱怨，说美国所做的是不公平的。
今天，美国西南部的大部分地区都位于曾经属于墨西哥的土地上，许多住在那里的人，他们的后代(或孙子、曾孙)都是当年住在那里的人的后代，那时那片土地还是墨西哥的一部分。墨西哥的传统(或旧的做事方式)至今仍影响着这些地区的生活。事实上，墨西哥文化和传统对美国西南部产生了巨大的影响，一种被称为“得克萨斯-墨西哥”(Texas-Mexican)的烹调风格不仅在美国西南部而且在全美国都很流行。
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- What is the capital of the United States?
Answer: Washington, D.C.
Explanation:The government of the United States is a representative democracy, which means that citizens vote for people who then represent them in the government, making laws and decisions that reflect (or are the same as) what the citizens want. Congress, or the lawmaking part of government, is made up of representatives from each state who represent the citizens of their state when Congress votes. But not all U.S. citizens have representation in Congress.
U.S. citizens who live in the country’s capitol, Washington, DC, do not have a representative who can vote in Congress. That is because Washington, DC is not a state. The country’s founding fathers, or the people who were very important in creating the country, didn’t want the national capital to be in a state, because then, that state would have too much power. So instead, the capitol is between two states: Maryland and Virginia. Almost 600,000 people live in Washington, DC, and none of them have representation in Congress.
Until 1961, Washington, DC residents (or people who live in Washington, DC) weren’t able to vote in the presidential elections either, meaning that they had no influence over (or ability to change) who would become the next president. This changed with the Twenty-Third Amendment (or official change) to the U.S. Constitution, which is the country’s most important legal document. So now DC residents can vote in the presidential elections.
Most DC residents think it is unfair (or not right) that they do not have representation in Congress. They believe that all U.S. citizens should have representation, and they have turned to U.S. history (or looked to U.S. history) to find support for their argument. When North America was still a British colony, or land that belonged to Great Britain, people argued that taxation without representation, or having to pay money to the British government when they had no representation in it, was unfair.
Today DC residents use that same phrase, taxation without representation, to make the same argument. The phrase even appears (or is shown) on DC license plates, which are the flat, rectangular pieces of metal with letters and numbers on the front and back of cars and trucks, showing that the car is registered with the government. In the United States, each state has its own license plate. The one in DC says “taxation without representation” to remind people (or make them remember) that they think the situation is unfair.
- 美国的首都是哪里?
答:华盛顿特区
解释:美国政府是代议制民主,这意味着公民投票然后在政府中代表他们的人,法律和决策反映公民想要什么。国会，或政府的立法部门，是由各州的代表组成的，当国会投票时，他们代表本州的公民。但并不是所有的美国公民都在国会有代表。
居住在美国首都华盛顿特区的美国公民在国会没有可以投票的代表。这是因为华盛顿特区不是一个州。这个国家的开国元勋们，或者说那些在创建这个国家过程中非常重要的人，不希望国家的首都在一个州，因为那样的话，那个州就会有太多的权力。因此，国会大厦位于两个州之间:马里兰州和弗吉尼亚州。近60万人居住在华盛顿特区，但他们中没有人在国会中有代表。
直到1961年，华盛顿特区的居民(或住在华盛顿特区的人)也不能在总统选举中投票，这意味着他们对谁将成为下一任总统没有影响力(或改变能力)。随着美国最重要的法律文件《美国宪法第二十三修正案》(或称官方修改)的颁布，这一情况发生了改变。所以现在特区居民可以在总统选举中投票。
大多数特区居民认为他们在国会没有代表是不公平的(或不正确的)。他们认为所有的美国公民都应该有代表权，他们已经转向美国历史(或从美国历史中寻找支持他们观点的证据)。当北美还是英国的殖民地或属于英国的土地时，人们认为没有代表权的征税，或在没有代表权的情况下向英国政府纳税是不公平的。
今天，华盛顿特区的居民用“无代表征税”这句话来表达同样的观点。这个短语甚至出现(或显示)在直流牌照上，这是平坦的，长方形的金属片与字母和数字在汽车和卡车的前面和后面，表明汽车登记在政府。在美国，每个州都有自己的车牌。一个在华盛顿特区的人说“无代表纳税”是为了提醒人们(或让他们记住)他们认为情况是不公平的。
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- Where is the Statue of Liberty?
Answer:
- New York (Harbor)
- Liberty Island
- [Also acceptable are New Jersey, near New York City, and on the Hudson (River).]
Explanation:Since 1886, the Statue of Liberty has been a symbol of freedom to people all over the world, meaning that when they look at a picture or photograph of the statue of liberty, they think about freedom in the United States. The Statue of Liberty welcomes people to the United States, or lets them know that the country is happy to have them come to visit or live there. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the government of France and now stands on Liberty Island in New York.
The Statue of Liberty, which is often referred to as “she” (or as a woman), is 151 feet (or 46 meters) tall and stands on a pedestal (or base) so that she reaches up to 305 feet (or 93 meters) tall. She is made of copper, which is a type of metal that turns green over time. Visitors used to be able to walk up the 354 steps inside the statue to enjoy panoramic (or very big and wide) views of New York City, but today they can see the statue only from below.
The Statue of Liberty is a statue of a woman wearing long robes, or large pieces of cloth that are worn over her shoulders and reach to her feet. Her right arm is extended (or held up) into the air and holds a torch, which is a long stick that burns on one end to make light. Her left arm holds a tablet, or a large piece of stone where writing has been carved or cut into the stone. The tablet says July 4, 1776, which is the day that the United States adopted or approved the Declaration of Independence and stopped being part of Great Britain. The date is written in Roman numerals, which is a way of writing numbers using letters instead of numbers.
When it is very windy, the Statue of Liberty sways (or moves from side to side) in the wind. The statue itself moves about 3 inches (or 7 centimeters), and the torch sways even more.
- 自由女神像在哪里?
答:
*纽约(海港)
*自由岛
*[靠近纽约市的新泽西和哈德逊河也可以。]
解释:自1886年以来，自由女神像一直是全世界人民自由的象征，这意味着当人们看到自由女神像的照片时，他们会想到美国的自由。自由女神像欢迎人们到美国来，或让他们知道这个国家很高兴他们来访问或生活在那里。自由女
自由女神像,这通常被称为“她”(或作为一个女人),151英尺(46米)高,站在一个基座上,这样她达到305英尺(93米)高。她是铜做的，铜是一种会随着时间变绿的金属。过去，游客们可以走上雕像内部的354级台阶，饱览纽约全景(或称非常宽阔的全景)，但如今，他们只能从下面才能看到雕像。
自由女神像的雕像是一个女人穿着长袍,或大块的布穿在她的肩膀,到达她的脚。她的右臂伸向空中，手持火炬，这是一根长棒，一端燃烧产生光。她的左臂拿着一块石碑，或一块刻着文字的大石头。碑上写着1776年7月4日，这一天，美国通过或批准了《独立宣言》，不再是大不列颠的一部分。日期是用罗马数字写的，这是一种用字母而不是数字来写数字的方法。
非常多风的时候,自由女神像摇摆(或从一边到另一边移动)。雕像本身移动了约3英寸(或7厘米)，火炬的摆动幅度更大。
