18.How many U.S. Senators are there?
18.美国有多少名参议员？
Answer: One hundred (100)
答案：100名
Explanation: The government of the United States was founded (or created) on the idea that the people who live in a country should be able to participate in the government.
解释：美国政府是建立在这样的构想之上的——那就是国民能够参与到政府事务中来。
However, more than three hundred million people live in the United States.
然而，美国有三亿多人口。
It would be virtually (or almost) impossible to get all of those people to meet together and make decisions as such a large group.
把所有这些人都召集在一起、让如此大的群体来作决定几乎是不可能的。
That is why the U.S. government is based on a system of representation, with a few people voting and making decisions for larger groups of people.
因此美国政府是建立在代议制基础之上的，也就是由少数人代替多数人进行选举和决策。
This representation is in two parts: the Senate and the House of Representatives.
这样的代表分为两个部分：参议院和众议院。
The Senate has only 100 representatives and they are called senators.
参议院只有100名代表，他们被称为参议员。
These senators represent the three hundred million people who live in the United States. This is a big job!
这些参议员代表着三亿美国人民。所以，这是一个任重而道远的工作！
Two senators are elected (or chosen) from each state, no matter how many people live in each state.
不管每个州有多少人口，它都选出两名参议员。
This gives all fifty states equal representation.
这就给予了所有50个州平等的代表权。
译文为秀哈英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
