Today we discussed how economies can be broken down into the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors.

今天我们讨论了如何将经济分解为第一产业、第二产业和第三产业。

The primary sector extracts raw materials from natural environments – so, workers like farmers or miners would fit well here.

第一产业从自然环境中提取原材料——因此，农民或矿工等工人很适合这里。

So, someone in the primary sector may extract oil from the earth, but someone in the secondary sector refines the petroleum into gasoline.

因此，第一部门的人可能从地球上提取石油，但第二部门的人将石油提炼成汽油。

So, the US economy began with many workers serving in either the primary and secondary economic sectors, but now, much of the US economy is centered on the tertiary sector, or the service industry.

因此，美国经济开始时有许多工人在第一和第二经济部门服务，但现在，美国经济的大部分集中在第三产业或服务业。