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Question:

Multiple choice question

Statistics are numbers that tell us about facts.

For example:

Statistics show that the largest earthquake ever recorded was in Chile, on May 22, 1960.

This year's statistics show that 16% of people do not have jobs, compared to 19% of people who could not find jobs last year. These statistics indicate that the economy is improving.

Statistics is also an academic field of study, which is divided into two parts:

1. Descriptive statistics - tools and rules for organizing and presenting data.

2. Inferential statistics - procedures that enable us to analyze and compare data, draw conclusions and make predictions.


	summarize something in numbers.
	be more creative.
	predict the chances or probability that something will happen.
	describe in numbers what happened.

Which answers below best complete this sentence? Choose the 3 correct answers. Statistics can help us to ...

Response:

	describe in numbers what happened.
	predict the chances or probability that something will happen.
	summarize something in numbers.
	be more creative.

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Question:

Multiple choice question

Think about this vocabulary program that you are now using to learn English words.

This program is based on statistics that identify which words appear most often in academic texts in English. These words are called “high-frequency” words, because statistics show that you will meet these words again and again when you read academic texts in English.

This means that the CHANCES of seeing these words are higher than chances of seeing other words - so high-frequency words are the words you should try to remember.


	remember what every word in the text means.
	decide which words are worth spending time and effort to learn.
	identify words you will keep meeting when you read academic texts.
	know which words to learn first.

Choose the 3 answers that best complete this sentence.

Statistics that identify high-frequency academic words help you to...

Response:

	know which words to learn first.
	decide which words are worth spending time and effort to learn.
	identify words you will keep meeting when you read academic texts.
	remember what every word in the text means.

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Question:

Multiple choice question

Look at the picture of the coin below.

Imagine that you throw the coin into the air. Every time you throw the coin, it has a 50% chance of landing with the face side up, and a 50% chance of landing with the building side up.

Does this mean that if you throw the coin 4 times, the coin will always land 2 times with the face side up and 2 times with the building side up? If you try this, you will see that this will not always happen - sometimes this will happen and sometimes it won't! Imagine that we threw the coin 5 times, and 4-out-of-5 times it landed with the face side up.

Statistics can help us to describe this - we would say that 80% of the time the coin landed with the face side up. However, statistics cannot help us to predict whether the coin will fall on the face side or on the building side next time we throw the coin.


	can always predict exactly what will happen next.
	can help us give an exact description of a situation.
	can only tell us what the chances are that something might happen.

Which answers below best complete this sentence? Choose 2 correct answers. The main message of the above paragraph is that statistics...

Response:

	can always predict exactly what will happen next.
	can only tell us what the chances are that something might happen.
	can help us give an exact description of a situation.

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Question:

Multiple choice question

A well-known saying tells us that "there are lies, big lies and statistics". This is because statistics often do not represent the whole picture. For example: Some statistics, such as the average, show us the central tendency that characterizes a set of data. Imagine you have 3 tests, in Math, Physics and Art. You scored 100 for each test, so your average grade is 100. However, you then get 60 for your English test, and look what happens to your average: It goes down from 100 to 90, even though you got 100 for 3 out of your 4 tests. This is because the average can be strongly influenced by just a few numbers that are different from the rest of the set.

Read the paragraph and answer the question below.


	Statistics can give us useful information.
	Although statistics are true facts, we need to be careful how we interpret what these facts mean.
	Statistics can distort the true picture.

Lies, Big Lies and Statistics

“Zebra crossings” are white stripes on a black road and are designed to help people to walk safely across busy roads. These stripes tell drivers to slow down and stop if people want to cross the road. However, statistics show that many accidents occur at “zebra crossings”. Does this mean that zebra crossings cause road accidents? No! This simply means that many more people cross the road at a zebra crossing, so the chances of people getting hit by a car at a zebra crossing are much greater than at other places on the road.

What is the main message of this exercise? Choose 2 correct answers.

Response:

	Statistics can give us useful information.
	Feedback: Statistics can give us useful information, but this is not the main message of this exercise. The main message is that we should always be careful to think of alternative options when we try to interpret what a statistic really means.
	Although statistics are true facts, we need to be careful how we interpret what these facts mean.
	Statistics can distort the true picture.