Memorize the following words and word combinations. Use them in the sentences. Pay attention to the prepositions

obtain

refer to

branch

be concerned with

be familiar with

gather

draw a conclusion

4. Read and translate the following sentences:

1. He obtained a law degree from the University of California. 2. This information is easily obtainable on the Internet. 3. Please refer to your owner's manual for more information. 4. Neurology is a branch of medicine. 5. It’s a bank with branches all over the country. 6. I am very concerned that class sizes seem to be growing. 7. People are becoming more concerned about what they eat. 8. It's nice to see a few familiar faces around here. 9. This street doesn't look familiar to me. 10. Anyone who's familiar with his poetry will find the course easy. 11. He doesn't like to be too familiar with his staff. 11. Crowds of fans gathered at the stadium for the big match. 12. She gathered her things together and left. 12. I've come to the conclusion that we'll have to sell the car. 13. In conclusion, I would like to thank our guest speaker. 14. You shouldn't jump to conclusions just because they were holding hands.

5. Read and translate the text:

What is statistics?

Put simply, statistics is a range of procedures for gathering, organising, analysing and presenting quantitative data. ‘Data’ is the term for facts that have been obtained and subsequently recorded, and, for statisticians, ‘data’ usually refers to quantitative data that are numbers. Essentially therefore, statistics is a scientific approach to analyzing numerical data in order to enable us to maximise our interpretation, understanding and use. This means that statistics helps us turn data into information; that is, data that have been interpreted, understood and are useful to the recipient. Put formally, for your project, statistics is the systematic collection and analysis of numerical data, in order to investigate or discover relationships among phenomena so as to explain, predict and control their occurrence. The possibility of confusion comes from the fact that not only is statistics the techniques used on quantitative data, but the same word is also used to refer to the numerical results from statistical analysis.

In very broad terms, statistics can be divided into two branches – descriptive and inferential statistics.

1. Descriptive statistics is concerned with quantitative data and the methods for describing them. (‘Data’ (facts) is the plural of ‘datum’ (a fact), and therefore always needs a plural verb.) This branch of statistics is the one that you will already be familiar with because descriptive statistics are used in everyday life in areas such as government, healthcare, business, and sport.

For example: The average age of citizens who voted for the winning candidate in the last presidential election, the average length of all books about statistics, the variation in the weight of 100 boxes of cereal selected from a factory’s production line.

You are most likely to be familiar with this branch of statistics, because many examples arise in everyday life. Descriptive statistics forms the basis for analysis and discussion in such diverse fields as securities trading, the social sciences, government, the health sciences, and professional sports. A general familiarity and widespread availability of descriptive methods in many calculating devices and business software can often make using this branch of statistics seem deceptively easy.

2. Inferential (analytical) statistics makes inferences about populations (entire groups of people or firms) by analysing data gathered from samples (smaller subsets of the entire group), and deals with methods that enable a conclusion to be drawn from these data. (An inference is an assumption, supposition, deduction or possibility.) Inferential statistics starts with a hypothesis (a statement of, or a conjecture about, the relationship between two or more variables that you intend to study), and investigates whether the data are consistent with that hypothesis. Inferential statistical methods can be easily misapplied or misconstrued, and many inferential methods require the use of a calculator or computer.

Statistical processing requires mathematics. One of the major problems any researcher faces is reducing complex situations or things to manageable formats in order to describe, explain or model them. This is where statistics comes in. Using appropriate statistics, you will be able to make sense of the large amount of data you have collected so that you can tell your research story coherently and with justification. Put concisely, statistics fills the crucial gap between information and knowledge.

6. Complete the following sentences:

· Statistics is a range of procedures for…

· ‘Data’ usually refers to quantitative…

· Statistics helps us turn data…

· Statistics is the systematic collection and…

· Statistics can be divided into…

· Descriptive statisticsis concerned with…

· Inferential (analytical) statisticsmakes inferences about….

· Using appropriate statistics, you will be able to make…