7.How many amendments does the Constitution have?
7.宪法有多少条修正案？
Answer: Twenty-seven (27)
答案：27条
Explanation: When the Founding Fathers (or the men who made the U.S. government) wrote the Constitution in 1787,
解释：美国开国元勋们（或者说是成立美国政府的人）在1787年撰写宪法的时候，
they wanted a government that would grow and change as America grew and changed.
就希望政府能够随着美国的发展而发展。
Everything they had written seemed like a good idea,
他们写下的所有内容似乎都是好想法，
but they knew that people might need or want to change parts of the Constitution later.
但他们知道后人可能需要改变部分宪法。
The Founding Fathers wanted their new government to last a long time,
美国开国元勋们希望他们的新政府能长久存在下去，
and allowing Constitutional Amendments was their way to make sure that the government could change to meet the changing country's needs.
所以允许宪法修正案是他们的一种手段，该手段确保政府能顺应不断改变的国家需要。
The word amendment comes from the verb to amend, which means to change something, so an amendment is a change to the Constitution.
“Amendment”一词源自动词“修正”，它是改变某事的意思，因此，修正案就是对宪法的修改。
Because the Constitution is always changing and being reinterpreted (or read again and understood differently),
因为宪法总是在发生变化和被重新诠释（或者说再次解读并以不同的方式理解），
many people call it a "living document."
因此，很多人称之为“活文件”。
Amendments are added to the Constitution for many reasons:
在宪法中添加修正案的原因有很多：
to overrule (or cancel or undo) a decision made by the Supreme Court (the highest court of the United States),
诸如推翻最高法院的裁决，
to change something that was written in the Constitution, or to change something in society.
改变宪法中的某些条款，或改变社会中的某事。
译文为秀哈英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
