【美国精神】第65期

Explanation:

  When the 13 American colonies¹ (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 decided² to have a meeting called the Constitutional Convention³. 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 representation⁴ 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 Compromise⁵, 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 Senate⁶, 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 threefifths (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.

 

问题：

What happened at the Constitutional Convention?

Answer:

• The Constitution was written.

• The Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution.

1 colonies   

n.殖民地( colony的名词复数 )；（侨民等）聚居区；（动植物的）群体；（来自同一地方，职业或兴趣相同的）聚居人群

参考例句：

• They amassed huge wealth by plundering the colonies. 他们通过掠夺殖民地聚敛了大笔的财富。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• But throughout the colonies, people relied primarily on small farms and self-sufficiency. 但就整个殖民地来说，人们主要依靠小型农场，过着自给自足的生活。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

2 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。

3 convention   

n.惯例，习俗，常规，会议，大会

参考例句：

• How many delegates have checked in at the convention?大会已有多少代表报到？
• He sets at naught every convention of society.他轻视所有的社会习俗。

4 representation   

n.表现某人（或某事物）的东西，图画，雕塑

参考例句：

• The painting is a representation of a storm at sea.这幅画描绘的是海上的暴风雨。
• All parties won representation in the national assembly.所有政党在国民大会中都赢得了代表资格。

5 compromise   

n.妥协；妥协方案；vt.损害；vi.妥协，让步

参考例句：

• The spokesman made it clear that no compromise was yet in sight.发言人表明，目前还不会妥协。
• The probable outcome of the talks is a compromise.会谈的结果很可能是妥协。

6 senate   

n.参议院，上院

参考例句：

• They feel deeply the honour of belonging to the Senate.他们为作为参议院的成员而深感荣幸。
• His unsuccessful senate run was his last hurrah.这次失败的参议员竞选是他最后的尝试。