1) The "discovery" of the New World 發現新大陸

①The "first Americans" were the Indians 最早的美國人是印第安人

②In the late 15th century, Christopher Columbus, an Italian navigator, supported by the Spanish queen, he led his men to sail across the vast ocean in 1492 and reached some small islands in the now west Indies. He thought he had reached Asia and didn't know he had discovered a New Continent.

15世紀后期，意大利航海家克里斯多弗.哥倫布，在西班牙女王的支持下,于1492年率領船隊穿越浩瀚的大西洋，抵達了現在西印度群島的一些小島。他誤以為到達了亞洲，并不知道自己已經發現了一個新大陸。

③Ameriga Vespucci proved that the land was a new continent. Therefore, the land was named America after him.

阿美利歌•韋斯普奇證明了這是新大陸，因此，以他的名字命名。

2)Causes of the colonization of the New World 殖民時期

Opportunity was a magic word.

機遇是一個神氣的詞

①The new Would drew English nobles (who dreamed of getting more land and establishing great new estates.).

②Drew other people who could not find jobs in England.

③Most of all , it drew the poor and the homeless from the farmlands and villages of Europe.

④Many settlers came to the English colonies in search of religious freedom because they had been persecuted in England.

1）他吸引了英國的貴族（那些夢想在荒原上創建龐大的新地產的）

2）吸引那些在英國無法找到工作的人。

3）尤其是吸引了歐洲農場和鄉村的窮人和無家可歸的人。

4）許多人為尋求宗教自由而在這英國殖民地定居下來，因為他們在英國受到早叫迫害。

3)The first English colony in the Americas was founded at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. Between1607 and 1733 the British established 13 colonies along the east coast of North America. They were Virginia, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Georlina.

美洲的第一塊英國殖民地于1607年在弗吉尼亞的詹姆斯建立。從1607年到1733年間，英國在北美的東海岸建立了13個殖民地。它們是弗吉尼亞、緬因、新罕布什爾、馬塞、康涅狄格、紐約、羅得島、馬里蘭、北卡羅來納，南卡羅來納、新澤西、賓夕法尼亞和佐治亞。

In 1620,201 of Pilgrims sailed to the New World in a ship called Mayflower. They arrived at Plymouth and built the Plymouth colony. The Puritans（清教徒）,unlike the Pilgrims(清教徒前輩)who were artisans and peasants, were wealthy, well-educated gentlemen. The Puritans did not allow religious dissent. The colonists were building a new way of life in the New World. There were a number of features which would play a role in forming the American character. They were representative from of government, rule of law, respect of individual rights, religious tolerance and a strong of individual enterprise.1620年，

清教徒前輩中的201人乘坐“5月花號”船來到新大陸，在普利茅斯建立了殖民地。清教徒和身為手藝人或農夫的清教徒前輩不同，他們富有，是受過良好教育的紳士。清教徒不允許異教存在。殖民者在新大陸建立了一種新的生活方式。以下幾點為美國特色的形成起到一定作用：政府的代表形式，法制，對人權的尊重，宗教的寬容和強大個人進取精神。