As cultural symbols go, the American car is quite young. The Model T Ford was built at the Piquette Plant in Michigan a century ago, with the first rolling off the assembly line on September 27, 1908. Only eleven cars were produced the next month. But eventually Henry Ford would build fifteen million of them.
就文化符号而言，美国汽车相当年轻。福特T型车于一个世纪前在密歇根州的皮奎特工厂制造，1908年9月27日第一次下线。第二个月只生产了11辆车，但最终亨利·福特将生产1500万辆。
Modern America was born on the road, behind a wheel. The car shaped some of the most lasting aspects of American culture: the roadside diner, the billboard, the motel, even the hamburger. For most of the last century, the car represented what it meant to be American going forward at high speed to find new worlds. The road novel, the road movie, these are the most typical American ideas, born of abundant petrol, cheap cars and a never-ending interstate highway system, the largest public works project in history.
现代美国诞生在路上，车轮后。汽车塑造了美国文化的一些最持久的方面：路边餐厅、广告牌、汽车旅馆，甚至汉堡包。在上个世纪的大部分时间里，车代表了美国人高速前进寻找新世界的意义。公路小说，公路电影，这些都是最典型的美国思想，源于丰富的石油，廉价的汽车和永无休止的州际公路系统，这是历史上最大的公共工程项目。
In 1928 Herbert Hoover imagined an America with “a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage.” Since then, this society has moved onward, never looking back, as the car transformed America from a farm-based society into an industrial power.
1928年，赫伯特·胡佛设想了一个“每个锅里都有鸡，每个车库都有车”的美国。从那时起，随着汽车将美国从一个以农业为基础的社会转变为一个工业强国，这个社会就一直向前迈进，从未回头。
The cars that drove the American Dream have helped to create a global ecological disaster. In America the demand for oil has grown by 22 percent since 1990.
驱动美国梦的汽车制造了一场全球生态灾难。自1990年以来，美国对石油的需求增长了22%。
The problems of excessive energy consumption, climate change and population growth have been described in a book by the American writer Thomas L. Friedman. He fears the worst, but hopes for the best.
美国作家托马斯·弗里德曼在一本书中描述了过度能源消耗、气候变化和人口增长等问题。他虽然非常担心，但仍抱有希望。
Friedman points out that the green economy is a chance to keep American strength. “The ability to design, build and export green technologies for producing clean water, clean air and healthy and abundant food is going to be the currency of power in the new century.”
弗里德曼指出，绿色经济是保持美国实力的一个机会。“设计、建造和出口绿色技术以生产清洁水、清洁空气和健康丰富的食品的能力将成为新世纪的动力货币。”
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