VOA标准英语2010年-308,529,148....Give or Take a Few

Very shortly, the decennial - meaning every-10th-year - census¹ of the nation's population, which is mandated² by the U.S. Constitution, will get underway.

And there's a lot more to it than just trying to count the number of Americans. The population keeps moving around, so after each head count some states gain - and others lose - members in the U.S. House of Representatives, where the number of seats is based on each state's official population. Data gathered from census surveys mailed to American households - and reported by Census workers sent out to find those who do not respond - also helps decide where billions of federal dollars get spent on new schools, highways and health care.

So you'd think every citizen would want to be sure to be counted. But no.  As in every census, some people just don't reply and illegal immigrants mostly avoid census-takers. In a recent nationwide poll by the Pew Research Center, 12 percent of Americans said they weren't sure they'd cooperate with the census effort and 6 percent said they probably or certainly would not.

 Library of Congress
This wood engraving³ by Thomas Worth, of an enumerator gathering⁴ information for the 1870 Census, was published in Harper's Magazine.

 The bureau dropped the sampling idea. When it came up again for 2010, sampling was shouted down. 

And last year, the Obama White House announced that senior administration appointees would work closely with the Census Bureau in supervising the 2010 Census. Republicans called it unconstitutional and a power grab.

So it looks like what is supposed to be a simple enumeration⁵ - or careful count - of the nation's population this year will be anything but routine.

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 mandated   

adj. 委托统治的

参考例句：

• Mandated desegregation of public schools. 命令解除公立学校中的种族隔离
• Britain was mandated to govern the former colony of German East Africa. 英国受权代管德国在东非的前殖民地。

3 engraving   

n.版画；雕刻（作品）；雕刻艺术；镌版术v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的现在分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中）

参考例句：

• He collected an old engraving of London Bridge. 他收藏了一张古老的伦敦桥版画。 来自辞典例句
• Some writing has the precision of a steel engraving. 有的字体严谨如同钢刻。 来自辞典例句

4 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

5 enumeration   

n.计数，列举；细目；详表；点查

参考例句：

• Predictive Categoriesinclude six categories of prediction, namely Enumeration, Advance Labeling, Reporting,Recapitulation, Hypotheticality, and Question. 其中预设种类又包括列举(Enumeration)、提前标示(Advance Labeling)、转述(Reporting)、回顾(Recapitulation)、假设(Hypotheticality)和提问(Question)。 来自互联网
• Here we describe a systematic procedure which is basically "enumeration" in nature. 这里介绍一个本质上是属于“枚举法”的系统程序。 来自辞典例句