Making sense of the census - 6 Minute English

Millions of people have tried to trace their family history and discover how their ancestors lived hundreds of years ago. And one of the most useful documents for research is the census. What is a census for? Why was it created? That's what Neil and Sam discuss as they teach you vocabulary.

This week's question
When BBC television programme, Who Do You Think You Are?, researched the family history of the British actor Danny Dyer, they discovered that the actor was related to someone very famous – but who?
A) King Edward III
B) William Shakespeare
C) Winston Churchill
Listen to the programme to find out the answer.

Vocabulary
census
system of officially counting and classifying every person of a nation’s population

figure out
understand something; find the answer to something

conscription
the act of forcing people to join the army by law

taxation
system of taxing people an amount of money to be paid to the government to fund public services

clerk
office worker whose job involves keeping records

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

[Cover: Getty Images]

To download the audio and a transcript, go to:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/6-minute-english/ep-210819

You'll find the exclusive episode about Jeff Bezos here: https://bbc.in/2XaVbLF

More 6 Minute English episodes:
The history of swimming
https://youtu.be/Iigy0LpJjN4

The language of wine
https://youtu.be/WbAeqhkL8aA

Meditation and your brain
https://youtu.be/sm6EtQg-hxw​​

No more bosses
https://youtu.be/ktgDXNML2uI​​

Learn to talk about broken hearts in 6 minutes!
https://youtu.be/WBLuy_YU-Zw​​

Coronavirus vs other pandemics
https://youtu.be/kjVd228S-yQ​​

#bbclearningenglish #learnenglish #census #population