【美国精神】第97期

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Explanation:   

    The design (or plan) for the flag of the United States has changed 26 times in the country’s short history. When the Declaration of Independence was written, the United States didn’t have a flag. The first flag was adopted (or chosen to be used) on June 14, 1777. Now we commemorate¹ (or remember) that day by celebrating June 14 as Flag Day every year. 

 

    Most Americans are taught and believe that a woman named Betsy Ross designed and sewed (or made from fabric) the first U.S. flag. Most historians think that she actually didn’t do this, but it has become a popular story among Americans. The story is so commonplace (or popular and easy to find) that the first U.S. flag is usually called “the Betsy Ross flag.”  

 

    The Betsy Ross flag had the same 13 red and white horizontal stripes (or lines that run from left to right) as the U.S. flag does today. But it had fewer stars. In 1777, when the flag was made, there were only 13 states, so the flag had only 13 stars, with one for each state. The stars were in a circle on top of the blue part of the flag. 

 

    As the United States grew and more pieces of land became states, the U.S. flag had to be redesigned (or designed again) to have more stars, keeping the tradition (or the way things have always been done) of having one star for each state. The first design change was made in 1795, when two stars were added for the two new states of Kentucky and Vermont. That flag also had 15 stripes. 

 

    But as the country continued to grow and there were more states, Congress (or the lawmaking part of the U.S. government) decided² that the number of stars should increase with the number of states, but that there should always be only 13 stripes. These stripes represented the 13 original colonies, or areas of land controlled by Great Britain that later became states.   

 

    The current 50-star flag has been the official design, or the one approved by the U.S. government, since 1960. However, some people are already looking to the future, or making plans for what might happen in the future. They have designed 51-star flags that could be used if and when another state is incorporated (or becomes part of the United States). 

 

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