評論
打印
44.What is the capital of your state?
44.你們州的首府是？
Answer: Answers will vary. (District of Columbia residents should answer that D.C. is not a state and does not have a capital. Residents of U.S. territories should name the capital of the territory.)
答案：答案不是唯一的。（哥倫比亞特區的居民會回答說因為哥倫比亞特區不是州，所以它沒有首府。美國準州的居民應該確定其首府。）
Explanation: Each of the fifty states has a capital (or a city where government buildings are and important decisions are made) for its state government.
解釋：美國的五十個州都有作為州政府的首府（或政府大樓和作出重大決定的城市）。
But what about the federal (or national) government?
那么聯邦（或國家）政府呢？
Where is its capital?
它的首都在哪？
Our Founding Fathers knew that if they put the federal capital within one state,
我們的國父們清楚如果他們把聯邦的首都設在某一州內，
that state would have more power and prestige (or importance and respect) than all the other states, and that wouldn't be fair.
那么該州就會比其它所有的州更有權力和威望（或重要性和尊重），這樣就不公平了。
They had to find a way to have a federal capital that would not favor (or give advantages to) one state more than all the others.
他們必須找到找到一個不會只偏袒（或把有利地位給）某個州的方式來設立聯邦首都。
The first capital of the United States was New York City, but this was just a temporary capital, a capital for a short period of time.
美國的第一個首都是紐約市，但它只是一個臨時首都，一個只存在很短時間的首都。
Our first president, George Washington, had to find a better place for the capital.
我們的第一任總統喬治·華盛頓，他必須找到更好的首都所在地。
In 1791 the capital was moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1791年，首都遷到了賓夕法尼亞州的費城。
At that time, Philadelphia was the biggest city in the country, so it made sense for the capital to be there.
當時，費城是全國最大的城市，因此把首都設在那里是合理的。
But even this was only temporary and the U.S. government planned to move the capital to a site (or place) on the Potomac River.
但甚至費城也只是暫時的，美國政府計劃將首都遷至波托馬克河上的一個地方。
譯文為可可英語翻譯，未經授權請勿轉載！
