地方：兩岸中間的那一片
最貼近字面的一層：middle 就是位置上的中間，指東岸和西岸以外的內陸。
noun · C1
The part of the United States that lies between the east and west coasts, especially its small towns, farms and suburbs, thought of together as one kind of place.
美國中部內陸地帶
核心畫面
You can picture the United States as a coast, a coast, and a very wide space in between. Middle America is that space: fields, small towns, suburbs, long roads. The word then does something more. It takes the people who live in that space and treats them as one kind of American — not rich, not poor, steady, traditional. So the same two words hold a place and a group of people, and the second grew out of the first.
可以想成一張美國地圖：左邊一條海岸，右邊一條海岸，中間一大片空的地方。Middle America 講的就是中間那片…更多收起
可以想成一張美國地圖：左邊一條海岸，右邊一條海岸，中間一大片空的地方。Middle America 講的就是中間那片——農田、小鎮、郊區、開很久的公路。接著這個詞又多做了一件事。它把住在那片土地上的人，當成一種「典型的美國人」來講：收入在中間，日子穩定，想法比較傳統。所以同樣兩個字，一邊是地方，一邊是人，而人的那層是從地方那層長出來的。Two branches
人：住在那片土地上的一般美國人
把地理的「中間」搬到人身上：收入在中間、想法也在中間的那一大群人。
noun · C1
Ordinary Americans taken as one large group: people who are neither rich nor poor, and who are thought of as holding traditional ideas and beliefs.
美國一般中產民眾