美国人和自行车

石继忠

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，所有的美国家庭都有汽车，有些家庭有两辆甚至更多的车。爸爸开车去工作，妈妈开车去购物，有些孩子开车去上学。

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.

从1960到1970年，越来越多的自行车被生产并售出。前两年，美国好几百万人突然开始购买自行车，好像那是一个伟大的新发明似的。今天，美国有七千多万辆自行车，平均每三辆汽车就有两辆自行车。

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.

当然了，自行车已经流行了150多年，这并不是美国首次出现的自行车热。美国人在19世纪末就开始喜欢并购买自行车了。1897年，工人生产了两百万辆自行车。后来，随着汽车的出现，人们对自行车不再那么感兴趣了。在那之后很多年，自行车只在孩子和少数成年人中流行。

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.

现在，人们已经知道了汽车会给地球带来大气污染，他们再次把目光投向自行车。有些人变胖了，他们就把自行车买回家。有些学生因为没钱买汽车就骑自行车上学。因此，美国仍有许多自行车爱好者。

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.

美国去年售出了八百万辆自行车，其中有三分之一卖给了成人。而前年，只有15%左右的新自行车卖给了成人。endprint