The United States is a big country with many, many roads. Many, if not most, of Americans depend on motor vehicles to get from place to place.

　　美国是一个有着许多公路的国家。虽然不是全部，但是大多数美国人都依靠机动车出行。

　　It goes without saying that, when talking or writing, Americans often use expressions with words from the world of automobiles. Now, let’s examine a few common expressions that come from parts of a vehicle.

　　毫无疑问在交谈和写作时，美国人经常会用到来自汽车界的词语来表达。现在让我们来看几个来源于汽车零部件的常用表达。

　　First is the part of the car that protects the front and back of a vehicle -- the bumper. The bumper is what suffers the most damage in a small accident.

　　首先是用于保护汽车前部和后部的保险杠。保险杠在小事故中受损最为严重。

　　The front bumper extends on both sides to the fender, which protects the front wheels. If your car hits someone else’s and causes a small amount of damage, we call it a fender-bender.

　　前保险杠两侧延伸到用于保护前轮的挡泥板。如果你开车撞上了别人的车，并造成小的损伤，我们就称之为小擦挂[fender-bender]。

　　But let’s get back to the word bumper.

　　但是让我们回到保险杠这个词。

　　American traffic reporters often use the term bumper-to-bumper when describing heavy traffic. It means that vehicles are moving very slowly, and almost touching each other.

　　美国交通记者经常使用bumper-to-bumper这个术语来描述交通拥挤。它的意思是车流行驶非常缓慢，几乎要前车贴着后车了。

　　Americans can use the term bumper-to-bumper as an adjective. If you are late for dinner because of traffic, you can tell your friends, "Sorry, I’m late. But traffic was bumper-to-bumper." They will understand.

　　美国人还把bumper-to-bumper这个术语当作形容词。如果你因为塞车而吃饭来迟了，你可以对朋友说：“对不起我迟到了，但是路上太堵了。”他们就会明白的。

　　Another part of a vehicle – mainly found on small trucks and on some models of cars -- is the tailgate. This is the gate or doorway that opens up in the back of the vehicle. If your car or truck has one, you can lower the tailgate and sit on it.

　　汽车的另一个零部件是主要出现在小卡车或某些型号汽车上的尾板，这是汽车尾部开启的一道门。如果你的汽车或卡车有尾板，你可以把它放倒并坐在上面。

　　This door on the back of larger passenger vehicles has led to something very American: the tailgate party. Tailgate parties usually take place in a parking area, where one or more of these vehicles are stopped. Their tailgates are open, with food or drinks available for the drivers and their passengers.

　　大型乘用车的尾板引发了一些非常美国化的事物：尾板派对。尾板派对通常在停车场进行，这些车的尾板敞开着向司机和乘客们提供食物和饮料。

　　In the United States, tailgate parties are common at large sporting events or music shows.

　　在美国，尾板派对在一些大型体育比赛或音乐表演上很常见。

　　Now, many cars do not have tailgates. That’s fine. If you spend time with friends and others in a large parking lot before a rock concert or a big game, you are still tailgating!

　　现在很多汽车都没有尾板，没关系。如果你在摇滚音乐会或大型比赛前跟朋友和其它人聚在大型停车场消磨时间，这就是尾板派对。

　　So, that form of tailgating is fun. But it is not fun when someone is tailgating your vehicle. A tailgater is someone who drives much too close to the back of your car. At best, this can be a pain, if not making you, the driver, really angry. But tailgating is also dangerous and the cause of many rear-end accidents.

　　所以，这种尾板派对非常有趣。但是开车时有人跟车太近可不好玩。Tailgater是指跟车很近的司机。如果这不会让开车的你感觉生气，那它充其量只是一种烦恼。但是跟车太近也是非常危险的，经常会导致车辆追尾事故。

　　There are other behaviors that can lead to a traffic accident.

　　还有些行为会导致交通事故。

　　Let’s take rubber necking, for example. Rubber necking is when drivers slow down on a road to look closely at a wreck or something else eye-catching as they are passing.

　　让我们以引颈旁观[rubber necking]为例。引颈旁观是指驾驶员开车经过时放慢速度看热闹。

　　Some drivers can stretch their neck far out of the window to see something like a serious crash. This is where we get the term. Drivers who rubber neck, however, can create their own accidents. First, they slow down, causing problems for other drivers and affecting the flow of traffic. But more importantly, they aren’t looking at the road in front of them!

　　有些司机可能会把脖子伸出窗外看热闹，比如一场严重交通事故。这就是引颈旁观的出处。然而，引颈旁观的司机可能自己也会发生事故。首先，他们放慢了速度，给其他司机造成麻烦并且影响通行。但是更为重要的是，他们没有在看路。

　　The first rule of driving should always be look where you are going! Another rule should be, stay calm.

　　开车的第一条规则应该是一直看着你前行的方向。另一条规则应该是保持冷静。

　　The most dangerous kind of driving behavior is road rage. This is anger or violence towards other drivers. Road rage is such a big problem in some areas, that local governments have laws that make some acts of road rage illegal.

　　最危险的驾驶行为就是路怒，这是对其它司机的愤怒或暴力。在某些地区，路怒是如此严重，地方政府制订了法律使一些路怒行为成为非法行为。

　　The road hog is more of a pain than dangerous. To hog something means to take too much of something. So, a road hog takes up too much of the road. The road hog sometimes drives in two lanes of traffic. Other times, they may not let other motorists pass them.

　　路霸[road hog]更多的是痛苦而不是危险。To hog something意思是过多占据某些事物。所以路霸是指过多霸占了道路。路霸有时候跨线行驶，还有时候不让其他司机超车。

　　And that bring us to the end of our road and this episode of Words and Their Stories! Next time you take a drive, you’ll be able to talk about your fellow drivers.