(单词翻译:单击)
As the United States grew and more pieces of land became states, the U.S. flag had to be redesigned (or designed again) to have more stars, keeping the tradition (or the way things have always been done) of having one star for each state.
随着美国的扩大并且更多的土地变成了州，必须要重新设计（或再一次设计）美国国旗来加入更多的星，保持每个州对应着一颗星的传统（或从历史沿传下来的行事方式）。
The first design change was made in 1795, when two stars were added for the two new states of Kentucky and Vermont.
第一次对国旗图样进行修改是在1795年，当加入两颗代表着肯塔基和佛蒙特这两个新生州的星星的时候。
That flag also had 15 stripes.
该旗帜还有15道宽条。
But as the country continued to grow and there were more states, Congress (or the lawmaking part of the U.S. government) decided that the number of stars should increase with the number of states, but that there should always be only 13 stripes.
但是随着该国继续扩大并且诞生了更多的州，国会（或美国的立法机构）决定星星的数量应随着州的数量的增加而增加，而国旗中就应该只有13道宽条。
These stripes represented the 13 original colonies, or areas of land controlled by Great Britain that later became states.
这些宽条代表着最初的十三个殖民地，或由英国控制后来成为州的地区。
The current 50-star flag has been the official design, or the one approved by the U.S. government, since 1960.
目前的50颗星的国旗一直是正式的图样，或是自1960年以来，由美国政府批准的图样。
However, some people are already looking to the future, or making plans for what might happen in the future.
然而，一些人已经在展望未来，或者正在为未来可能发生的事制订计划。
They have designed 51-star flags that could be used if and when another state is incorporated (or becomes part of the United States).
他们已经设计出了51颗星的国旗，如果另一个州加入进来（或成为美国的一部分）的话，就可以拿来用。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
