石繼忠

All the American families today have cars. Some families may have two or more cars. Fathers drive to work. Mothers drive cars to do shopping. Some children may also drive to school.

今天，所有的美國(guó)家庭都有汽車(chē)，有些家庭有兩輛甚至更多的車(chē)。爸爸開(kāi)車(chē)去工作，媽媽開(kāi)車(chē)去購(gòu)物，有些孩子開(kāi)車(chē)去上學(xué)。

More and more bikes were made and sold out between 1960 and 1970. In the past two years， millions of Americans suddenly began to buy the bicycle as if it were a great new invention. And there are more than 70 million bikes in the United States today. Thats more than two for every three cars.

從1960到1970年，越來(lái)越多的自行車(chē)被生產(chǎn)并售出。前兩年，美國(guó)好幾百萬(wàn)人突然開(kāi)始購(gòu)買(mǎi)自行車(chē)，好像那是一個(gè)偉大的新發(fā)明似的。今天，美國(guó)有七千多萬(wàn)輛自行車(chē)，平均每三輛汽車(chē)就有兩輛自行車(chē)。

Of course， the bike has been popular for more than 150 years， and this isnt Americas first bicycle boom1. Americans began to like and buy the bike in the late 1800s. Workers made two million bicycles in 1897. Then with the coming of the cars， people became less interested in bikes. For many years after that， bikes were popular only with children and a few adults.

當(dāng)然了，自行車(chē)已經(jīng)流行了150多年，這并不是美國(guó)首次出現(xiàn)的自行車(chē)熱。美國(guó)人在19世紀(jì)末就開(kāi)始喜歡并購(gòu)買(mǎi)自行車(chē)了。1897年，工人生產(chǎn)了兩百萬(wàn)輛自行車(chē)。后來(lái)，隨著汽車(chē)的出現(xiàn)，人們對(duì)自行車(chē)不再那么感興趣了。在那之后很多年，自行車(chē)只在孩子和少數(shù)成年人中流行。

Now， people have got to know that cars will bring about air pollution to the earth. Once again they turn their eyes to bikes. Some people are getting fatter and they bring the bike back to their homes. Some students ride bikes to school because they dont have enough money to buy cars. So there are still many bike lovers in America.

現(xiàn)在，人們已經(jīng)知道了汽車(chē)會(huì)給地球帶來(lái)大氣污染，他們?cè)俅伟涯抗馔断蜃孕熊?chē)。有些人變胖了，他們就把自行車(chē)買(mǎi)回家。有些學(xué)生因?yàn)闆](méi)錢(qián)買(mǎi)汽車(chē)就騎自行車(chē)上學(xué)。因此，美國(guó)仍有許多自行車(chē)愛(ài)好者。

More than eight million bikes were sold in the United States last year and one third of them went to adults. The year before， only 15% of new sales were for adults.

美國(guó)去年售出了八百萬(wàn)輛自行車(chē)，其中有三分之一賣(mài)給了成人。而前年，只有15%左右的新自行車(chē)賣(mài)給了成人。endprint