import requests


def get_census_variable_descriptions(dataset, year, variables):
    """
    Download descriptions of census variables from the API
    """
    url_template = "https://api.census.gov/data/{year}/{dataset}/profile/variables/{variable}.json"
    variable_descriptions = {}

    for variable in variables:
        url = url_template.format(year=year, dataset=dataset, variable=variable)
        response = requests.get(url)
        data = response.json()
        variable_descriptions[variable] = {
            "concept": data["concept"],
            "label": data["label"],
        }

    return variable_descriptions