41.Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the federal government. What is one power of the federal government?
41.宪法规定了联邦政府一些权力。联邦政府的一项权力是?
Answer: To print money; To declare war; To create an army; To make treaties
答案:印刷货币;宣战;创建军队;签订条约
Explanation: When the 13 original states united (or came together) to make a new country, each of the states wanted to keep its powers and independence (or ability to make its own decisions).
解释:当最初的13个州统一(或联合)成为一个新国家时,每个州都想要保持其权力和独立(或能自己做决定)。
But the new federal (or national) government would also need some powers or else the states would not be able to work together as a new country.
但是新的联邦(或国家)政府也需要一些权力,否则作为这个新生国家的各个州就无法团结在一起。
That is why the Constitution (our country's most important legal document) specifies (or makes clear) certain powers for the federal government and others for the states.
这就是为什么宪法(我们国家最重要的法律文件)规定了(或指明了)联邦政府的一些权力以及各个州的其它权力。
One of the powers of the federal government is to print money or to make the bills (or paper money) and coins (or metal money) that we use to buy and sell things.
联邦政府的其中一项权力是印刷货币或制造我们用来交易的纸币和硬币。
It makes sense that this is a federal power, because if each state could print its own money,
这个是联邦政府的权力是有道理的,因为如果每个州都能印刷自己的货币的话,
then it would be very difficult to buy and sell things across state borders (or the lines drawn between states on a map, where one state ends and another state begins).
那么跨州(或地图上画在州之间的界线,那是一个州结束,另一个州的开始的地方)之间的交易就会变得非常困难。