- Why did the colonists fight the British?
Answer:
- because of high taxes (taxation without representation)
- because the British army stayed in their houses (boarding, quartering)
- because they didn’t have self-government Explanation:When people first began living in the British colonies (or areas of land that belonged to Great Britain but that were far away), they still thought of themselves as British citizens. But over time, something changed. They began to rebel against (or stop obeying) the British government because they thought that they were being treated unfairly. The people had created a new identity (or the way that they saw and understood themselves) and were becoming Americans. They began to fight against the British for three main (or most important) reasons: high taxes, quartering, and the lack of self-government. Let’s look at each of these three reasons. The new Americans were unhappy with the high taxes (or money paid to the government) that were imposed (or forced on them) by the British government. It was taxation without representation, meaning that Americans were supposed to pay money to the British government even though they had no representation or ability to give their opinion in that government. This made the new Americans very angry. Americans were also angry about the way that the British army treated them. British soldiers (or people who work in the army) were often quartered (or allowed to live, eat, and sleep in a place for a short period of time) in American homes without the permission (or approval) of the person who owned the home. Often these soldiers behaved very badly while they were in the home. This is the second reason why the new Americans decided to begin fighting against the British. The third reason that Americans fought against the British was because they lacked (or didn’t have) self-government, which was the ability to create and run their own government. The land that would become the United States was far away from Great Britain, yet all the government decisions were being made in Great Britain. The new Americans longed (or strongly wanted) to make their own decisions, but the British wouldn’t let them. So Americans fought against the British, and this fighting became known as the American Revolution, or the war that ended when the United States became its own country, separate from Great Britain.
- 为什么殖民者要与英国人作战?
答:
•因为高税收(没有代表权的税收)
•因为英国军队呆在他们的房子里(寄宿、驻扎)
•因为他们没有自治
解释:
当人们最初开始生活在英属殖民地(或属于大不列颠但离得很远的地区)时，他们仍然认为自己是英国公民。但随着时间的推移，情况发生了变化。他们开始反抗(或不再服从)英国政府，因为他们认为自己受到了不公平的对待。人们创造了一种新的身份(或者他们看待和理解自己的方式)，并成为美国人。他们开始与英国人作战有三个主要(或最重要)的原因:高税收、驻扎和缺乏自治。让我们来看看这三个原因。
新美国人对英国政府强加给他们的高税收(或付给他们的钱)感到不满。这是没有代表权的税收，意味着美国人应该向英国政府纳税，他们甚至在英国政府中没有代表权，也没有能力表达自己的意见。这使新美国人非常生气。
美国人也对英国军队对待他们的方式感到愤怒。英国士兵(或在军队中工作的人)经常未经拥有房屋的人的许可(或批准)在美国家庭中驻扎(或允许在一个地方住、吃、睡一小段时间)。这些士兵在家里的表现通常都很糟糕。这是新美国人决定与英国开战的第二个原因。
美国人反抗英国人的第三个原因是他们缺乏(或没有)自治，即创建和管理自己政府的能力。这块后来成为美国的土地离英国很远，但所有政府的决策都是在英国做出的。新美国人渴望(或强烈希望)自己做决定，但英国人不允许。
因此，美国人与英国人作战，这场战争被称为美国独立战争(American Revolution)，也就是结束于美国独立于英国的那场战争。
- Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?
Answer:(Thomas) Jefferson
Explanation:There is a funny story that shows how many Americans think of Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States. One day, President John F. Kennedy (our thirty-fifth president) was in the White House, which is the building where the U.S. president lives. He was there with 49 Nobel Prize winners. (The Nobel Prize is an award given to people who have done very important work in different fields all over the world.) President Kennedy said that this was the greatest group of human knowledge and talent that had ever been together in the White House, except when Thomas Jefferson ate there alone. This was his funny way of saying that Thomas Jefferson was a great man in American history who was good at many things, much more than other people, even a group of some of the world’s smartest people!
Thomas Jefferson is famous for many things. He was the second vice-president and the third president of the United States, but he is even better known for having written the Declaration of Independence, or the letter that was written to let Great Britain know that its colonies had become the United States, an independent country. Thomas Jefferson was one of the most influential Founding Fathers (meaning he was able to affect other people’s opinions) who helped to create the United States. While he was president, he sent two men named Lewis and Clark to explore the western part of North America. He also negotiated (or arranged) the Louisiana Purchase, which allowed the United States to buy a lot of land from France.
Thomas Jefferson was born in 1743 and was a Renaissance man, which means he was a man who has a lot of different types of knowledge and knows how to do many different things. He was a gardener, a politician, an author, an architect (or someone who designed buildings), and an inventor (or a person who makes new things that no one else had thought of before). He was the founder of (or the person who started) the University of Virginia.
Thomas Jefferson built a home called Monticello in Virginia. It is still there today, and many people go to visit it and learn more about this great man. At Monticello, people can see his architectural designs and many of his inventions, like automatic doors (or doors that open without being touched) and the swivel chair (or a chair that turns in circles while a person is sitting on it).
- 谁写的独立宣言?
答:托马斯·杰斐逊
解释:有一个有趣的故事,展示了许多美国人眼中的美国第三任总统托马斯·杰斐逊。有一天，约翰·f·肯尼迪总统(我们的第35任总统)在白宫，这是美国总统居住的大楼。他和49位诺贝尔奖得主一起出席。(诺贝尔奖是授予在世界各地不同领域做出重要贡献的人的奖项。)肯尼迪总统说，除了托马斯·杰斐逊独自在白宫用餐外，这是白宫里最伟大的一群人类知识和才能的集大成者。这是他说托马斯·杰斐逊是美国历史上一个伟大的人的一种有趣的方式，他擅长很多事情，比其他人都要多，甚至比一群世界上最聪明的人还要多!
托马斯·杰斐逊因许多事情而出名。他是美国的第二任副总统和第三任总统，但他更出名的是他写了《独立宣言》，也就是那封让英国知道它的殖民地变成了美国这个独立国家的信。托马斯·杰斐逊是美国最具影响力的开国元勋之一(这意味着他能够影响他人的观点)，他帮助创建了美国。当他还是总统的时候，他派了两个叫刘易斯和克拉克的人去北美西部探险。他还通过谈判(或安排)了购买路易斯安那州的交易，使美国得以从法国购买大量土地。
托马斯·杰斐逊生于1743年，是一个多才多艺的人，这意味着他有很多不同类型的知识，知道如何做很多不同的事情。他是一个园丁，一个政治家，一个作家，一个建筑师(或设计建筑物的人)，和一个发明家(或一个人谁也没有想到的新东西)。他是弗吉尼亚大学的创始人。
托马斯·杰斐逊在弗吉尼亚建了一个叫蒙蒂塞洛的房子。今天它仍然在那里，许多人去参观它，了解更多关于这个伟大的人。在蒙蒂塞洛，人们可以看到他的建筑设计和他的许多发明，比如自动门(或者不用触摸就能打开的门)和转椅(或者当一个人坐在椅子上时，椅子会转圈圈)。
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- When was the Declaration of Independence adopted?
Answer: July 4, 1776
Explanation:Sometimes when an American wants you to sign your name (or write your name in a way that only you can do it, usually to show that you agree with something), he or she will say: “Put your John Hancock here.” That phrase relates to the U.S. Declaration of Independence, which was a letter that Americans wrote to let Britain know that they no longer wanted to be ruled (or controlled) by the British government. The Declaration of Independence was signed by 56 men, but John Hancock’s signature was the first and biggest signature on the document. It was so big and bold (or large and showing that he was not afraid of anyone or anything), that today people say “Put your John Hancock here” when they want you to sign something.
The Declaration of Independence was adopted (or accepted) by the original 13 states on July 4, 1776. Today we celebrate a holiday called Independence Day every Fourth of July, because that is the day when the United States got its independence (or freedom) from Britain.
But the Declaration of Independence did more than just get independence from Britain. It also said many important things about human rights (or the things that all people should be allowed to do and to have). One of the most well-known phrases in the Declaration is that “all men are created equal.” This was important, because at the time the Declaration was written, not all men were treated equally. That is one of the reasons that Americans wanted their independence from Britain. They thought that they weren’t being treated as well as British people were being treated, so they wanted to create their own government.
The Declaration of Independence also listed many of the Americans’ complaints (or things that they didn’t like) about the British government, like not letting them make laws where they lived, and making them pay a lot of taxes (or money that was given to the government). The list of complaints became the Americans’ justification (or reason) for creating an independent country.
- 《独立宣言》是什么时候通过的?
答案:1776年7月4日
解释:
有时，当一个美国人想让你签上你的名字(或者以一种只有你能做到的方式写你的名字，通常是为了表示你同意某事)，他或她会说:“在这里签上你的约翰汉考克。”这句话和美国的《独立宣言》有关，那是美国人写给英国人的一封信，告诉英国人他们不想再被英国政府统治(或控制)。独立宣言由56个人签署，但约翰·汉考克的签名是文件上的第一个也是最大的一个签名。它是如此之大和大胆(或大，表明他不害怕任何人或任何事)，以至于今天人们说“把你的约翰汉考克签在这里”，当他们想要你签署什么东西。
《独立宣言》于1776年7月4日被最初的13个州通过(或接受)。今天，我们在每年的7月4日庆祝一个叫做独立日的节日，因为这是美国从英国获得独立(或自由)的日子。
但是《独立宣言》所做的不仅仅是从英国独立出来。它还说了许多关于人权的重要事情(或者说所有人都应该被允许做和拥有的事情)。宣言中最著名的一句话是“人人生而平等”。这很重要，因为在写宣言的时候，并不是所有的人都被平等对待。这也是美国人想要脱离英国独立的原因之一。他们认为自己受到的待遇不如英国人，所以他们想建立自己的政府。
《独立宣言》还列出了许多美国人对英国政府的抱怨(或他们不喜欢的事情)，比如不让他们在自己居住的地方制定法律，让他们交很多税(或给政府的钱)。这些抱怨成为美国人建立一个独立国家的理由。
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- There were 13 original states. Name three.
Answer:
New Hampshire
Massachusetts
Rhode Island
Connecticut
New York
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
DelawareMarylandVirginia
North Carolina
South Carolina
Georgia
Explanation:Once Europeans arrived to North America, they began to fill up the land very quickly. Many Europeans moved to the land that would later become the United States. European countries like Britain, France, and Spain created colonies (or areas of land that belong to a country but are far away). Britain had 13 colonies, and those colonies later became the original 13 states of the United States.
The 13 colonies can be divided into four groups: the Southern Colonies, the Chesapeake Bay Colonies, the Middle Colonies, and New England. The Southern Colonies were Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. These colonies had very good weather for farming and were mostly used for growing cotton and tobacco (or a plant that is smoked in cigarettes). There was a lot of work to do on the plantations (or large farms), so the Southern Colonies had many slaves (or people who were owned as property and forced to work without being paid).
A little further north were the Chesapeake Bay Colonies of Maryland and Virginia. A bay is a large area of water that is mostly surrounded by land. The city of Jamestown in Virginia is famous for being the first permanent English settlement (or a place where people begin living) in America. It was founded (or created) in 1607. Many of the people who lived there died from hunger, cold, and attacks by the Native Americans, but Jamestown survived (or continued to exist), and today people can visit Jamestown to learn about its history.
The Middle Colonies, which used to be called New Netherlands, were Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. The people living in these colonies had many different religions and had a lot of tolerance, which meant that they had the ability to live with other people who were very different from themselves. This was very different from the situation in Europe.
The last four colonies, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, made up New England. We still call the northeastern part of the United States “New England.” These were some of the first colonies that wanted independence from Britain. They were also the first colonies to make their own coins (or money made from small, round, flat pieces of metal).
- 最初有13个州。写出他们的名字。
答:
新汉普郡
麻萨诸塞州
罗德岛州
康涅狄格
纽约
新泽西
宾西法尼亚
特拉华州马里兰弗吉尼亚
北卡罗莱纳
南卡罗来纳
乔治亚州
解释:
欧洲人一到北美，他们就开始很快地填满这片土地。许多欧洲人搬到了这块后来成为美国的土地上。英国、法国和西班牙等欧洲国家建立了殖民地(或属于一个国家但距离很远的地区)。英国有13个殖民地，这些殖民地后来成为美国最初的13个州。
13个殖民地可分为四组:南部殖民地、切萨皮克湾殖民地、中部殖民地和新英格兰。南方的殖民地是乔治亚州、北卡罗来纳州和南卡罗来纳州。这些殖民地有很好的农业气候，主要用于种植棉花和烟草(或香烟中使用的一种植物)。在种植园(或大农场)有很多工作要做，所以南方殖民地有很多奴隶(或被当作财产拥有的人，被迫无偿工作)。
再往北一点是马里兰州和弗吉尼亚州的切萨皮克湾殖民地。海湾是一大片被陆地包围的水域。弗吉尼亚州的詹姆斯敦市因其是美国第一个永久的英国殖民地(或人们开始生活的地方)而闻名。它成立于1607年。许多住在那里的人死于饥饿、寒冷和印第安人的袭击，但詹姆斯敦幸存了下来(或继续存在)，今天人们可以参观詹姆斯敦了解它的历史。
中部殖民地过去被称为新荷兰，包括特拉华州、新泽西州、纽约州和宾夕法尼亚州。生活在这些殖民地的人有很多不同的宗教信仰，有很多的宽容，这意味着他们有能力和与自己非常不同的人生活在一起。这与欧洲的情况大不相同。
最后四个殖民地，康涅狄格、马萨诸塞、新罕布什尔和罗德岛，组成了新英格兰。我们仍然称美国东北部为“新英格兰”。这些是第一批希望从英国独立出来的殖民地。他们也是最早制作自己的硬币(或用小而圆的扁平金属制成的钱币)的殖民地。
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- What happened at the Constitutional Convention?
Answer:
• The Constitution was written.
• The Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution.
Explanation:
When the 13 American colonies (or areas of land ruled by Great Britain but far away from it) got their independence (or freedom) from Britain, they did not have a strong government. They agreed to follow a document called the Articles of Confederation, but it wasn’t strong enough for the new country. So political leaders decided to have a meeting called the Constitutional Convention. Some of the people who went to the Constitutional Convention wanted to improve (or make better) the Articles of Confederation. Others wanted to create a new type of government.
The Constitutional Convention was held from May 25th to September 17th, 1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During that time, political leaders discussed (or talked about) many important issues. One of the main disagreements was how Americans should be represented in the legislature (or the lawmaking part of the government). People from large states wanted representation to be based on population, while people from small states wanted each state to have equal representation. A man from Connecticut, Roger Sherman, finally solved (or found an answer to) the problem when he created the Connecticut Compromise, which was a solution that gave everybody some, but not all, of what they wanted. The Connecticut Compromise created the House of Representatives, where representation is based on population, and the Senate, where representation is equal for all states.
Another disagreement at the Constitutional Convention was how the votes of slaves (or people who were owned as property and were forced to work without being paid) should be counted. About 20% of the U.S. population was slaves, and most of them were in the South. States with many slaves wanted them to be counted for representation in the legislature, but not for taxes (or money paid to the government). States without slaves wanted them to be counted for taxes, but not for representation. The solution was another compromise: to count each slave as three- fifths (or 60%) of a person.
There were many other disagreements during the Constitutional Convention, but eventually the Constitution (or the most important legal document in the United States) was written. The men who were at the Constitutional Convention are often called our Founding Fathers, because they were the people who helped to found (or create) the U.S. government as we know it today.
65.制宪会议发生了什么？
回答：
•制定宪法。
•开国元勋制定宪法。
说明：
当13个美国殖民地(或被英国统治但远离英国的地区)从英国获得独立(或自由)时，他们没有一个强大的政府。他们同意遵循一份名为《联邦条例》的文件，但它对这个新国家来说不够强大。因此，政治领导人决定召开一次名为制宪会议的会议。有些参加制宪会议的人想要改善(或使)联邦条例。其他人想要建立一个新型的政府。
制宪会议于1787年5月25日至9月17日在宾夕法尼亚州费城举行。在那段时间里，政治领导人讨论了许多重要问题。主要分歧之一是美国人在立法机构(或政府的立法部分)中应如何代表。来自大州的人希望代表权以人口为基础，而来自小州的人则希望每个州都有平等的代表权。来自康涅狄格州的罗杰·谢尔曼最终解决了这个问题，他制定了《康涅狄格妥协方案》。康涅狄格妥协案创造了众议院和参议院，前者的代表人数取决于人口，后者的代表人数对所有州都是平等的。
制宪会议上的另一个分歧是如何计算奴隶(或被当作财产而被迫无偿工作的人)的选票。大约20%的美国人是奴隶，其中大部分在南方。拥有许多奴隶的州希望他们能在立法机构中代表自己，而不是为了税收(或付给政府的钱)。没有奴隶的州希望他们被计入税收，而不是代表。解决办法是另一种妥协:将每个奴隶算作一个人的五分之三(或60%)。
在制宪会议期间还有许多其他的分歧，但最终宪法(或美国最重要的法律文件)被写了出来。参加制宪会议的人通常被称为我们的开国元勋，因为他们帮助建立了我们今天所知道的美国政府。
