VOA慢速英语2020 美国人口普查人员开始统计流浪人口

Census¹ Workers Search Camps, Shelters to Count Homeless Americans

This week, workers for the United States Census Bureau will try to count homeless Americans.

本周，美国人口普查局的工作人员将开始统计美国流浪人口。

The U.S. Constitution requires that a full census, or count, of the country's population take place every 10 years. The numbers help officials to shape congressional representation and decide how to spend federal money.

美国宪法要求，每10年进行一次全国人口普查。这些数字可以帮助官员确定国会代表的组成以及决定如何使用联邦资金。

Al Fontenot is the associate director of the U.S. Census Bureau. He spoke² to an advisory³ committee last week. He said the Bureau has identified about 49,000 places across the U.S. where homeless people will be counted. The places include more than 33,000 camps, almost 10,000 shelters and 5,000 soup kitchens.

方特诺特（Al Fontenot）是美国人口普查局的副局长。他上周向一家咨询委员会发表了讲话。他说，该局已经确定了全美约4.9万处无家可归者的统计地点。这些地点包括3.3万多处难民营，近1万处避难所以及5千处施粥场所。

Counting the homeless is one of the hardest jobs for the U.S. Census Bureau. The effort is beginning six months later than planned because of the COVID-19 health crisis.

统计流浪人口是美国人口普查局最困难的任务之一。由于新冠肺炎健康危机的影响，这项工作的启动比原计划推迟了6个月。

Fontenot said, "We are making every effort to make sure that no one is left out of the count."

方特诺特表示：“我们正在尽一切努力确保漏计。”

A difficult job

困难重重

The delay means workers will be on the job during warmer weather, when homeless people are spread out across larger areas. Also, most homeless shelters are only operating at 25 percent to 50 percent capacity because of coronavirus restrictions⁴. Some homeless activists⁵ worry that the Census Bureau will not count the whole homeless population.

普查工作推迟意味着工作人员统计人口时赶上天气变暖，流浪人口分散到了更大的区域。此外，由于新冠病毒限制，大多数游民收容场所只开放了25%到50%的容量。一些调查流浪人口的活动人士担心，人口普查局无法统计到所有的流浪群体。

Mike Arnold leads of aid group Midnight Mission. It provides beds, meals and drug abuse treatment on Skid⁶ Row, a poor area in Los Angeles.

迈克·阿诺德（Mike Arnold）领导了“午夜使命”这一援助组织。该组织在洛杉矶的贫民窟提供床位、食物和药物滥用治疗。

Arnold said, "The best time to count is when it's cold and when it's dark, the way the county's count is done. Fewer people are moving around and people are bedded down."

阿诺德表示：“人口普查的最佳时间是寒冷的夜里，美国的人口普查就是这样做的。这时候很少有人走动，大家都定居在某处。”

Beth Shinn is a professor at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee who researches homelessness. She said trying to count people living outdoors will be hard.

贝斯·希恩（Beth Shinn）是田纳西州范德比尔特大学一名研究流浪人群的教授。她说，统计生活在户外的流浪者难度很大。

"People find places to be that aren't necessarily visible," Shinn said.

希恩表示：“他们都在找隐蔽的地方栖身。”

The homeless count is starting as the Census Bureau's effort to count people living in what is called transitory housing ends this month. About 12,500 census takers started visiting more than 60,000 RV parks, campgrounds, marinas and hotels where people often live temporarily.

随着美国人口普查局本月结束对居住在所谓临时住所中的人们的普查，对流浪者的普查即将展开。大约有12500名人口普查员造访了6万多个房车营地、露营区、码头和旅店，这些通常是人们临时居住的地方。

All field operations for the 2020 census are set to end September 30.

2020年人口普查的所有现场操作都将在9月30日结束。

For the homeless count, if someone is sleeping, a census taker will count them without getting information about their age, race, sex or ethnic⁷ identity.

对于流浪者普查工作来说，如果有人睡着，人口普查员会对他们进行统计，但无法获得关于对方年龄、种族、性别或民族身份信息。

Nowhere in the U.S. is the homeless crisis more visible than in Los Angeles. There, hundreds of people live in temporary shelters. A count last January by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority reported that there were more than 66,400 homeless people living in Los Angeles County. That is an increase of more than 12 percent from the year before.

在美国，洛杉矶流浪者的危机最为明显。那里有成百上千人居住在临时庇护所。洛杉矶无家可归者服务组织1月份的一项统计显示，洛杉矶县有超过66400人无家可归。比前一年增长了12%以上。

The wildfires in California only add to the difficulty of getting an exact count. Californian Democrat⁸ Jimmy Gomez is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He wonders if many people in the state will be counted at all. "That is a big concern with wildfires raging across California," he said.

加州的野火增加了获取准确统计数据的难度。加州民主党人吉米·戈麦斯（Jimmy Gomez）是美国众议院议员。他想知道加州是否会有很多人被计算在内。他说：“这是加州各地野火肆虐带来的一大问题。”

1 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 advisory   

adj.劝告的，忠告的，顾问的，提供咨询

参考例句：

• I have worked in an advisory capacity with many hospitals.我曾在多家医院做过顾问工作。
• He was appointed to the advisory committee last month.他上个月获任命为顾问委员会委员。

4 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

5 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 skid   

v.打滑 n.滑向一侧；滑道 ，滑轨

参考例句：

• He braked suddenly,causing the front wheels to skid.他突然剎车，使得前轮打了滑。
• The police examined the skid marks to see how fast the car had been travelling.警察检查了车轮滑行痕迹，以判断汽车当时开得有多快。

7 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

8 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。