【美国精神】第26期

Explanation:  

  Many of the people who came to North America and later created the U.S. government had come from countries that had kings. Many of those kings had too much power and they abused (or used in a bad way) their power, because they knew that they would be king for their entire life. That’s why, when it was time to create the new U.S. government, our Founding Fathers didn’t want to have any more kings, or even a president who acted like a king. They didn’t want anyone to be able to become president for the rest of his or her life, so they made a term of four years, meaning that a U.S. president can be president for four years and then has to be elected again. 

 

  But how many times can a president be re-elected? The original (or first and unchanged) Constitution didn’t say. Our first president, George Washington, was president for two terms, or a total of eight years. Then he decided¹ that he didn’t want to run for office (or try to be elected) again. When he did this, he set a precedent², or a way of doing things that other people followed. For many years, no other president ran for more than two terms. Presidents Ulysses Grant and Theodore Roosevelt tried to run for a third term, but they were unsuccessful. In 1940, however, President Franklin Roosevelt became the first president to be elected for a third term. Actually, he even won a fourth term and could have served for 16 years total, but he died in office early in his fourth term. 

 

  After he died, Congress (or the lawmaking part of the U.S. government) decided that it didn’t want anyone to be able to be president for more than two terms because it would give the president too much power. They created what would become the 22nd Constitutional Amendment³ (or a change or addition to the constitution), which states that no one can be elected to the office (or position) of president more than twice (or two times). The Amendment was created by Congress in 1947, and ratified⁴ (or approved) by the states in 1951. 

 

问题：

We elect a President for how many years?  

Answer:   

Four (4) 

1 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

2 precedent   

n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的

参考例句：

• Is there a precedent for what you want me to do?你要我做的事有前例可援吗？
• This is a wonderful achievement without precedent in Chinese history.这是中国历史上亘古未有的奇绩。

3 amendment   

n.改正，修正，改善，修正案

参考例句：

• The amendment was rejected by 207 voters to 143.这项修正案以207票对143票被否决。
• The Opposition has tabled an amendment to the bill.反对党已经就该议案提交了一项修正条款。

4 ratified   

v.批准，签认（合约等）( ratify的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The treaty was declared invalid because it had not been ratified. 条约没有得到批准，因此被宣布无效。
• The treaty was ratified by all the member states. 这个条约得到了所有成员国的批准。