When the 2020 United States census, scheduled for April 1st, was planned, the areas of most concern were mapped. They include places like Deep East Texas, an area of 10,000 square miles north-east of Houston with a population of roughly 385,000 people. “We are a totally rural region,” says Lonnie Hunt, the director of the Deep East Texas Council of Governments (DETCOG), an intergovernmental agency. “We have economically distressed people, rural people, senior citizens, minorities—we check box after box after box.” In large parts of the region most people do not have internet access. Many live in places only accessible with four-wheel drives.
计划于4月1日开展的2020年美国人口普查，需要重点关注的地区，例如德克萨斯州的远东部地区，都在地图上被标了出来。德克萨斯州的远东部地区，位于休斯顿东北部，面积为1万平方英里，人口约为38.5万人。德州政府委员会（一个政府间机构）的主任罗尼·亨特称：”我们就是一个农村，我们有贫困户，乡下人，老年人和少数民族——我们挨家挨户地调查。“在该地区的大部分区域，大多数家庭没有接入互联网。许多人住在比较偏远的地区，只有开车才能到达。
Counting everybody in Deep East Texas was never going to be easy. Now it looks like it may be near impossible. “The coronavirus has certainly complicated matters,” says Mr Hunt. To help ensure an accurate count, DETCOG had hired a dozen census co-ordinators to go out to community events—sports matches, church services, school sports days—with information to persuade people to send their returns in, and internet hotspots and iPads with which to do it on the spot. Most of those events are now being cancelled. With people staying indoors, they probably will not encounter any of the workers meant to explain to them the importance of the census and get them to fill it in.
统计德州远东部地区的人口从来都不是一件易事。如今，这几乎成为一件不可能完成的任务。亨特先生说:“新型冠状病毒无疑使问题复杂化了。”为了确保统计的准确性，德州政府委员会雇佣了12名人口普查协调员去参加社区活动——体育比赛、教堂服务、学校运动会——提供信息说服人们发送信息，并且利用互联网热点和平板电脑当场完成填写提交操作。但是如今，大部分此类活动都被取消了。由于人们呆在室内，他们可能不会遇到任何工作人员。这些工作人员本打算利用参与这些活动的机会，向人们解释人口普查的重要性，并让他们填写普查相关数据。
The virus may represent the biggest threat to the United States census in its 230-year history. Mandated by the constitution, it is the world’s most expensive and among the world’s oldest consistent data-gathering operations. The results determine how many congressional seats and electoral-college votes are allocated to each state, and where those districts are. Roughly $1.5trn of federal money each year is spent according to data derived at least in part from census returns. It is not just the government that uses it. Firms use it to decide where to build supermarkets, target advertising or open factories. “Every nook and cranny of the private economy relies on census data,” says Andrew Reamer of George Washington University.
新冠病毒可能是美国人口普查230年以来面临的最大威胁。依据美国《宪法》，人口普查是世界上最昂贵的、也是最古老的持续数性据收集活动之一。普查的结果决定了每个州将分配多少国会席位和选举人票，以及这些选区的地点。每年大约有1.5万亿美元的联邦资金是根据或者至少部分是根据人口普查报告的数据进行投放的。不仅仅是政府在使用普查数据。公司企业利用人口普查数据决定在哪里建造超市、投放广告或开设工厂。“私营经济的每一个角落都依赖于人口普查数据，”乔治华盛顿大学的安德鲁·雷曼说。
词汇积累
1. census 英 [ˈsensəs] 美 [ˈsensəs] n. 人口普查，人口调查 vt. 实施统计调查
2. mapped v. 计划，绘制...的地图
3. distressed 英 [dɪˈstrest] 美 [dɪˈstrest] adj. 痛苦的；忧虑的；贫困的；受损的 v. 使痛苦；使紧张；使困苦
4. minority 英 [maɪˈnɒrəti] 美 [maɪˈnɔːrəti] n. 少数民族；
5. internet hotspots n. 互联网热点
6. mandate 英 [ˈmændeɪt] 美 [ˈmændeɪt] n. 授权；命令，指令；委托管理；受命进行的工作 vt. 授权；托管
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