【美国精神】第91期

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. Virgin¹ 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 applied² 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 ceded³ (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 legislative⁴ (which makes laws), and the judicial⁵ (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.

 

问题：

Name one U.S. territory.

Answer:

• Puerto Rico

• U.S. Virgin Islands

• American Samoa

• Northern Mariana Islands

• Guam

1 virgin   

n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的

参考例句：

• Have you ever been to a virgin forest?你去过原始森林吗？
• There are vast expanses of virgin land in the remote regions.在边远地区有大片大片未开垦的土地。

2 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

3 ceded   

v.让给，割让，放弃( cede的过去式 )

参考例句：

• Cuba was ceded by Spain to the US in 1898. 古巴在1898年被西班牙割让给美国。
• A third of the territory was ceded to France. 领土的三分之一割让给了法国。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。

5 judicial   

adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的

参考例句：

• He is a man with a judicial mind.他是个公正的人。
• Tom takes judicial proceedings against his father.汤姆对他的父亲正式提出诉讼。