1) The "discovery" of the New World 发现新大陆

①The "first Americans" were the Indians 最早的美国人是印第安人

②In the late 15th century, Christopher Columbus, an Italian navigator, supported by the Spanish queen, he led his men to sail across the vast ocean in 1492 and reached some small islands in the now west Indies. He thought he had reached Asia and didn't know he had discovered a New Continent.

15世纪后期，意大利航海家克里斯多弗.哥伦布，在西班牙女王的支持下,于1492年率领船队穿越浩瀚的大西洋，抵达了现在西印度群岛的一些小岛。他误以为到达了亚洲，并不知道自己已经发现了一个新大陆。

③Ameriga Vespucci proved that the land was a new continent. Therefore, the land was named America after him.

阿美利歌•韦斯普奇证明了这是新大陆，因此，以他的名字命名。

2)Causes of the colonization of the New World 殖民时期

Opportunity was a magic word.

机遇是一个神气的词

①The new Would drew English nobles (who dreamed of getting more land and establishing great new estates.).

②Drew other people who could not find jobs in England.

③Most of all , it drew the poor and the homeless from the farmlands and villages of Europe.

④Many settlers came to the English colonies in search of religious freedom because they had been persecuted in England.

1）他吸引了英国的贵族（那些梦想在荒原上创建庞大的新地产的）

2）吸引那些在英国无法找到工作的人。

3）尤其是吸引了欧洲农场和乡村的穷人和无家可归的人。

4）许多人为寻求宗教自由而在这英国殖民地定居下来，因为他们在英国受到早叫迫害。

3)The first English colony in the Americas was founded at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. Between1607 and 1733 the British established 13 colonies along the east coast of North America. They were Virginia, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Georlina.

美洲的第一块英国殖民地于1607年在弗吉尼亚的詹姆斯建立。从1607年到1733年间，英国在北美的东海岸建立了13个殖民地。它们是弗吉尼亚、缅因、新罕布什尔、马塞、康涅狄格、纽约、罗得岛、马里兰、北卡罗来纳，南卡罗来纳、新泽西、宾夕法尼亚和佐治亚。

In 1620,201 of Pilgrims sailed to the New World in a ship called Mayflower. They arrived at Plymouth and built the Plymouth colony. The Puritans（清教徒）,unlike the Pilgrims(清教徒前辈)who were artisans and peasants, were wealthy, well-educated gentlemen. The Puritans did not allow religious dissent. The colonists were building a new way of life in the New World. There were a number of features which would play a role in forming the American character. They were representative from of government, rule of law, respect of individual rights, religious tolerance and a strong of individual enterprise.1620年，

清教徒前辈中的201人乘坐5月花号船来到新大陆，在普利茅斯建立了殖民地。清教徒和身为手艺人或农夫的清教徒前辈不同，他们富有，是受过良好教育的绅士。清教徒不允许异教存在。殖民者在新大陆建立了一种新的生活方式。以下几点为美国特色的形成起到一定作用：政府的代表形式，法制，对人权的尊重，宗教的宽容和强大个人进取精神。