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44.What is the capital of your state?
44.你们州的首府是？
Answer: Answers will vary. (District of Columbia residents should answer that D.C. is not a state and does not have a capital. Residents of U.S. territories should name the capital of the territory.)
答案：答案不是唯一的。（哥伦比亚特区的居民会回答说因为哥伦比亚特区不是州，所以它没有首府。美国准州的居民应该确定其首府。）
Explanation: Each of the fifty states has a capital (or a city where government buildings are and important decisions are made) for its state government.
解释：美国的五十个州都有作为州政府的首府（或政府大楼和作出重大决定的城市）。
But what about the federal (or national) government?
那么联邦（或国家）政府呢？
Where is its capital?
它的首都在哪？
Our Founding Fathers knew that if they put the federal capital within one state,
我们的国父们清楚如果他们把联邦的首都设在某一州内，
that state would have more power and prestige (or importance and respect) than all the other states, and that wouldn't be fair.
那么该州就会比其它所有的州更有权力和威望（或重要性和尊重），这样就不公平了。
They had to find a way to have a federal capital that would not favor (or give advantages to) one state more than all the others.
他们必须找到找到一个不会只偏袒（或把有利地位给）某个州的方式来设立联邦首都。
The first capital of the United States was New York City, but this was just a temporary capital, a capital for a short period of time.
美国的第一个首都是纽约市，但它只是一个临时首都，一个只存在很短时间的首都。
Our first president, George Washington, had to find a better place for the capital.
我们的第一任总统乔治·华盛顿，他必须找到更好的首都所在地。
In 1791 the capital was moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1791年，首都迁到了宾夕法尼亚州的费城。
At that time, Philadelphia was the biggest city in the country, so it made sense for the capital to be there.
当时，费城是全国最大的城市，因此把首都设在那里是合理的。
But even this was only temporary and the U.S. government planned to move the capital to a site (or place) on the Potomac River.
但甚至费城也只是暂时的，美国政府计划将首都迁至波托马克河上的一个地方。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
