Have you ever eaten a Big Mac? If you have been to a McDonald's, then the answer is probably yes. McDonald's was the very first fast-food restaurant chain, and it is still one of the largest ones on the planet. A chain is a group of restaurants that do almost everything the same way. They use the same name, serve mostly the same food, and maintain the same level of quality control. Richard and Maurice McDonald founded McDonald's in California in 1940. Around 1948, the brothers started using new techniques to cook their food. These techniques helped to increase speed and efficiency in the restaurant. Eventually, they began to call their product "fast food." In 1961, an Illinois businessman named Ray Kroc bought the company from the brothers and began to open several new franchise locations. A franchise is a store, restaurant, or other business that is granted the license by a company to operate in a specific territory and use that company's name and business techniques. McDonald's now has over 37,000 franchised restaurants in 120 countries. These franchises employ over 1.9 million people around the world, and they serve almost 69 million customers each day. McDonald's is seen as a symbol of the American lifestyle, and some people believe that the international spread of McDonald's represents a triumph of American values. Despite all this success, there are some people who don't like to eat at McDonald's. These critics say that eating too much fast food is very unhealthy. Many doctors agree, and studies have found that too much fast food can lead to obesity. Maybe that's why more and more people are too large to fit into airplane seats. McDonald's is also aware of this problem. In response, many of their restaurants have begun to introduce healthy choices, like salads.
你吃過「大麥克堡」嗎？如果你曾去過麥當勞，你可能有機會享用到。麥當勞是第一家速食連鎖餐廳，目前也仍是全球規模最大的連鎖餐廳。連鎖餐廳指的是以同一種形態開設的餐廳，使用同一個名字，販賣幾乎相同的食物，並且維持同等的品質管制。
麥當勞是於1940 年，由理查與莫里斯．麥當勞兩兄弟在加州所創立。大約1948 年時，兩兄弟開始以既快速又經濟的新技術來製作食物。他們最後稱呼所製造出來的美味食物為「速食」。1961年，伊利諾州的雷．克洛克買下麥當勞兄弟的公司產權，並且開始開設有經銷權的新餐廳，經銷權指的是商店、餐廳或其他企業擁有公司所授與的許可證，經營特定的領域，並使用公司的名稱和技術。
現今，麥當勞在120 個國家裡，擁有超過37,000 家的連鎖店，這些連鎖店在全球雇用的員工超過190 萬人，每天服務超過,900 萬人。麥當勞已經變成一個美式生活的代表，有些人認為麥當勞的全球化普及現象，也正代表著美式價值觀的勝利。 即便麥當勞是如此地成功，還是有許多人並不愛吃麥當勞的食物。這些批評者說，吃太多速食是非常不健康的。許多醫生也同意速食過量會引起過度肥胖。或許這就是為什麼越來越多人無法將自己塞進飛機座位裡的原因吧。而麥當勞也發現了此問題，因此許多麥當勞餐廳現在也開始推出像沙拉這類健康的餐點。 | 
