Did you know that we are now offering a new weekly extra episode of 6 Minute English exclusively on our website?

你知道嗎，從現在起我們每週會獨家在官網加碼上架多一集 6 分鐘學英文的節目內容。

So go to bbclearningenglish.com to find your favorite presenters on your favorite program.

所以趕快到 bbclearningenglish.com 去找你最喜歡的節目主持人。

The extra episodes are only available on our website: bbclearningenglish.com. See you there!

這些加碼內容為官網限定，記得瀏覽 bbclearningenglish.com。到時見！

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil and I'm Sam.

你好。歡迎光臨 BBC Learning English 的 6 分鐘英語學習。我是 Neil， 我是 Sam。

In recent years, many people have wanted to find out more about where they come from.

近年來，越來越多人好奇自己的來歷。

Millions have tried to trace their family history and discover how their ancestors lived hundreds of years ago.

數百萬人試圖追蹤他們的家族歷史和發掘他們的祖先數百年前的生活方式。

The internet has made it much easier to find historical documents and records about your family history.

拜互聯網所賜，尋找歷史文件和記錄來追溯家族歷史這件事情變得更簡單。

And one of the most useful documents for doing this is the census.

而其中一個最有效追溯歷史的文件是人口普查。

A census is an official count of all the people living in a country. It collects information about a country's population and is usually carried out by the government.

人口普查是政府統計國家人數的官方工具。它蒐集一個國家的人口資料，並且通常是由政府負責實行。

In Britain, a census has been carried out every ten years since 1801.

英國從 1801 年起，每 10 年都會舉行一次人口普查。

In 2002, when census records from a hundred years before became available online, so many people rushed to their computers to access them that the website crashed!

2002 年，當百年前人口普查記錄被放上網後，大批人們湧入網站，導致網站癱瘓。

But before we find out more about the census and its related vocabulary, it's time for a quiz question, Sam.

在我們討論更多關於人口普查及其相關單字前，先來玩益智問答吧！Sam。

Someone who knows a lot about his family history is British actor, Danny Dyer. When BBC television program "Who Do You Think You Are?" researched his family history they discovered that the actor was related to someone very famous – but who was it?

要說誰對自己家族史很清楚，應該非英國演員 Danny Dyer 莫屬。他當時參加 BBC 的一檔電視節目《你以為你是誰？》，製作單位在研究了他的資料後赫然發現他和一位名人有非一般的關係。

A) King Edward III,

A）愛德華三世

B) William Shakespeare,

B）莎士比亞

or C) Winston Churchill

C) 丘吉爾

Well, I know Danny Dyer usually plays tough-guy characters so maybe it's C) war hero Winston Churchill.

Danny Dyer 經常扮演硬漢角色，所以我猜是應該是 C）丘吉爾。

OK, Sam, we'll find out later if that's correct. Now, although the first British census took place in 1801, other censuses have a much longer history.

Sam，我們待會兒會詳細討論你的答案是否正確。雖然英國在 1801 年就開始了人口普查工作，但其實其他地區的人口普查有著更久遠的歷史。

In fact, the bible story of Mary and Joseph travelling to Bethlehem is linked to a Roman census.

事實上，瑪利亞和若瑟前往伯利恆的聖經故事與一項羅馬人口普查有關。

So, what was the original reason for counting people and what did governments hope to achieve by doing so?

那麼當初政府為什麼要統計國家人數，當時政府又希望通過人口普查達到什麼目的？

Here is Dr. Kathrin Levitan, author of a book on the cultural history of the census, speaking to BBC World Service program, The Forum.

人口普查文化歷史書籍作家 Kathrin Levitan 博士，向英國廣播公司國際頻道的節目 The Forum 發表談話。

I think there were probably two most common reasons. One was in order to figure out who could fight in wars, so basically military conscription and in order to find out who could fight in wars ancient governments like the Roman Empire had to find out how many men of a certain age there were.

我想古代的政府展開人口普查主要原因有二：一、是為了徵兵，從國家人口中挑出可以上戰場的新兵，當時羅馬帝國就是靠人口普查鎖定特定年齡層的男性群體。

And I would say that the other thing that censuses were most commonly used for was for purposes of taxation.

二、是為了徵稅。

According to Kathrin Levitan, ancient censuses were used to figure out – or understand, how many men were available to fight wars.

Kathrin Levitan 說，古代的人口普查是用來搞清楚國家有多少名男性可以派上戰場。

The Roman Empire needed a strong army, and this depended on conscription – forcing people to become soldiers and join the army.

羅馬帝國當時需要一支強大的軍隊，所以他們採用徵兵制，強迫人們當兵從軍。

The other main reason for taking a census was taxation – the system of taxing people a certain amount of money to be paid to the government for public services.

另一個人口普查主要原因是徵稅——徵稅指的是政府定制一套收費系統，向使用公共服務的人們收取一定數目的費用。

Ancient and early modern censuses were large and difficult-to-organise projects. They often involved government officials going from house to house, asking questions about the people who lived there.

在古代和現代早期，人口普查被視為是規模龐大且難以管理的項目。進行人口普查時，政府官員通常得挨家挨戶去問居民問題。

But over time governments' desire to know about, and control its citizens gave rise to new technologies for counting people.

但隨著時間的推移，各地政府在人口普查上導入了新科技。

Here's statistician and economist Andrew Whitby explaining how this happened in the US to BBC World Service program, The Forum.

統計學家和經濟學家 Andrew Whitby 向 BBC 國際頻道節目 The Forum 解釋美國過去如何將科技導入人口普查作業。

The 1890 census of the United States was the first in which some kind of electro-mechanical process which used to count people… so instead of just you know, armies of clerks kind of reading off census schedules and kind of tabulating these things by hand, for the first time an individual census record would be punched onto a card.

美國 1890 年的人口普查是第一個使用電動機械工藝來統計人數的人口普查，他們不再依賴公務員以手動方式來確認普查表或把資料變成表格，這是第一次個人普查資料以卡片打孔方式作記錄。

So that there were kind of holes in this card representing different characteristics of the person and then those cards could be fed through a machine.

打在卡片上的洞代表著該人的特點，並以機器讀取卡片上記載的資料。

Old-fashioned censuses were managed by clerks – office workers whose job involved keeping records.

舊式的普查表由公務員管理——公務員指的是職務內容包括保存記錄的辦公人員。

Thousands of clerks would record the information gathered in the census and tabulate it, in other words, show the information in the form of a table with rows and columns.

數以千計的公務員會把普查表的資料記錄下來，並製成表格，以欄和列的方式視覺化普查結果。

The US census of 1890 was the first to use machines, and many censuses today are electronically updated to record new trends and shifts in populations as they happen.

1890 年，美國第一次用機器輔助人口普查工作，時至今日，許多人口普查資料已經可以電子化更新，記錄人口的新趨勢和改變。

In fact, so much personal information is now freely available through social media and the Internet that some people have questioned the need for having a census at all.

由於現在許多個人資料已經可以很輕鬆地從社交媒體和網路上取得，因此有些人質疑繼續展開人口普查的必要性。

Yes, it isn't hard to find out about someone famous, like a TV star.

要取得名人，如電視影星的資料當然不難。

Someone like Danny Dyer, you mean?

你是說像 Danny Dyer 那樣的人？

Right. In my quiz question I asked Sam which historical figure, TV actor Danny Dyer was related to.

對，還記得我在節目一開始問 Sam 電視演員 Danny Dyer 與哪一位歷史人物有關係嗎？

And I said it was C) Winston Churchill. Was I right?

而我說是 Ｃ)丘吉爾。 我的答案正確嗎？

It was a good guess, Sam, but the actual answer was A) King Edward III. And no-one was more surprised that he was related to royalty than the EastEnders actor himself!

答案很接近了，但正解是 A）愛德華三世。值得一提的是，與貴族沾上邊，《東區人》演員 Danny Dyer 的反應比任何人都來得驚訝。

OK, Neil, let's recap the vocabulary from this program about the census - the official counting of a nation's population.

好的，Neil 我們來複習本期節目的單字吧！人口普查——是統計國家人數的官方工具。

To figure something out means to understand it.

要弄清楚一些事情的意思是理解它。

The Romans used conscription to force men to join the army by law.

羅馬人使用徵兵制迫使男性加入軍隊。

Taxation is the government's system of taxing people to pay for public services.

徵稅指的是政府定制一套收費系統，向使用公共服務的人們收取一定數目的費用。

A clerk is an office worker whose job involves keeping records.

公務員指的是職務內容包括保存記錄的辦公人員。

And tabulate means show information in the form of a table with rows and columns.

製成表格指的是以欄和列的方式視覺化資料。

That's all for our six-minute look at the census, but if we've whetted your appetite for more, why not check out the whole episode – it's available now on the website of BBC World Service program, The Forum.

以上是今天的 6 分鐘了解人口普查，歡迎到 BBC 國際頻道 The Forum 觀賞完整版節目內容。

-Bye for now! -Bye bye.

-節目到此為止。 -再見。