Our first president, George Washington, was president for two terms, or a total of eight years.
我们的首位总统乔治·华盛顿担任了两届总统，也就是八年。
Then he decided that he didn't want to run for office (or try to be elected) again.
然后他决定不再竞选总统（谋求被选）。
When he did this, he set a precedent, or a way of doing things that other people followed.
他这样做后，就立下了先例，或者其他人遵循的做事方法。
For many years, no other president ran for more than two terms.
多年以来，没有哪位总统竞选两届以上的任期。
Presidents Ulysses Grant and Theodore Roosevelt tried to run for a third term, but they were unsuccessful.
尤利西斯·格兰特和西奥多·罗斯福曾试图竞选第三届任期，但都失败了。
In 1940, however, President Franklin Roosevelt became the first president to be elected for a third term.
而在1940年，罗斯福总统却成为了首位当选三届的总统。
Actually, he even won a fourth term and could have served for 16 years total, but he died in office early in his fourth term.
事实上，他甚至赢得了第四届任期并能够担任16年总统，但是他在第四届任期早期死于任上。
After he died, Congress (or the lawmaking part of the U.S. government) decided that it didn't want anyone to be able to be president for more than two terms because it would give the president too much power.
他死后，国会（美国政府的立法部门）决定不让任何人能够担任两届以上的总统，因为这样会让总统拥有太多的权力。
They created what would become the 22nd Constitutional Amendment (or a change or addition to the constitution), which states that no one can be elected to the office (or position) of president more than twice (or two times).
他们创立了第二十二条宪法修正案（对宪法的变更或添加），里面规定任何人都不得担任两届以上的总统。
The Amendment was created by Congress in 1947, and ratified (or approved) by the states in 1951.
国会在1947年创立了该修正案，并在1951年获得各个州的批准。
译文为秀哈英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
