A Nation on Wheels

A Nation on Wheels. Written by David Dreier.

车轮上的国家。 大卫·德雷尔 著。

Introduction The world is full of cars and trucks. There are over 600 million of them. They are in even the smallest town in the smallest country. There are over 200 million cars and trucks just in the United States. Most of these vehicles are automobiles. We are a nation moving on wheels.

引言 世界上到处都是小汽车和卡车。 它们的总数超过六亿辆。 哪怕是最小国家里的最小城镇，都能看到它们的身影。 仅美国一国，就有超过两亿辆小汽车和卡车。 这些交通工具大多是家用汽车。 我们是一个在车轮上前行的国家。

the early days. People have always needed to travel. At first, people walked everywhere, even long distances. Then they tamed animals to ride and taught some to pull wagons. Horses, camels, and even elephants helped people make trips and carry things. Imagine riding to school on an elephant. Using animals was better than walking, but it was still slow.

早期发展。 人们一直都有出行的需求。 最开始，人们不管去哪都靠走路，哪怕是长途跋涉。 后来人们驯服了动物，让它们驮着自己，还训练一些动物拉车。 马、骆驼，甚至大象都能帮人们出行、运货。 想象一下骑着大象去上学吧。 用动物出行比走路方便，但速度还是很慢。

Inventors tried to build a machine with wheels to carry people faster. They thought of building an engine to run it. They tried running engines with steam or with electricity, but neither engine worked well enough. In the late 1880s, people made engines that could run on gasoline or gas. These engines were small but powerful. They could travel faster and go farther. Today, most cars use gas engines.

发明家们尝试造带轮子的机器，让人们出行更快。 他们想到造一个发动机来驱动它。 他们试过用蒸汽或电力驱动发动机，但两种都不够好用。 19世纪80年代末，人们造出了可使用汽油驱动的发动机。 这种发动机体积小，动力却很强。 能让车子跑得更快、更远。 如今，大部分汽车都使用汽油发动机。

How Cars Are Made The first cars did not look like the ones you see today. They looked like carriages without horses. People even called them horseless carriages. At first, cars were made one at a time by hand. It took a long time. They were expensive. Not everyone could afford a handmade car. People tried ways to manufacture cars faster and at a lower cost. In 1896, one early company could make only 13 cars in a year. But by 1899, a company could make over 2 ,000.

汽车的制造 最早的汽车和你如今见到的样子不一样。 它们看起来就像是没有马拉的马车。 人们甚至把它们叫做“无马马车”。 最开始，汽车都是手工一辆一辆制造的。 造一辆车要花很长时间。 价格也十分昂贵。 不是所有人都买得起手工制造的汽车。 人们想办法加快造车速度、降低成本。 1896年，一家早期汽车公司一年只能造13辆车。 但到1899年，一家公司一年就能造出超过2000辆车了。

In 1903, Henry Ford started the Ford Motor Company in Detroit, Michigan. Detroit would soon become the center of car making. Ford's company sold a car called the Model T. Ford wanted to make cars that cost less so more people could buy them. This meant he had to manufacture more cars and do it faster.

1903年，亨利·福特在密歇根州底特律创办了福特汽车公司。 底特律很快就成了汽车制造中心。 福特公司推出了T型车，福特想造出价格更低的车，让更多人都买得起。 这意味着他得更快造出更多汽车。