2. 外语
  3. There were two widely divergent influences on the early development of statistical methods. Statistics had a mother who was dedi

There were two widely divergent influences on the early development of statistical methods. Statistics had a mother who was dedi

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问题    There were two widely divergent influences on the early development of statistical methods. Statistics had a mother who was dedicated to keeping orderly records of governmental units (state and statistics come from the same Latin root, status) and a gentlemanly gambling father who relied on mathematics to increase his skill at playing the odds in games of chance. The influence of the mother on the offspring, statistics, is represented by counting, measuring, describing, tabulating, ordering, and the taking of censuses-- all of which led to modern descriptive statistics. From the influence of the father came modem inferential statistics, which is based squarely on theories of probability.
   Descriptive statistics involves tabulating, depicting, and describing collections of data. These data may be either quantitative, such as measures of height, intelligence, or grade level -- variables that are characterized by an underlying continuum -- or the data may represent qualitative variable, such as sex, college major, or personality type. Large masses of data must generally undergo a process of summarization or reduction before they are comprehensible. Descriptive statistics is a tool for describing or summarizing or reducing to comprehensible form the properties of an otherwise unwieldy mass of data.
   Inferential statistics is a formalized body of methods for solving another class of problems that present great difficulties for the unaided human mind. This general class of problems characteristically involves attempts to make predictions using a sample of observations. For example, a school superintendent wishes to determine the proportion of children in a large school system who come to school without breakfast, have been vaccinated for flu, or whatever. Having a little knowledge of statistics, the superintendent would know that it is unnecessary and inefficient to question each child; the proportion for the entire district could be estimated fairly accurately from a sample of as few as 100 children. Thus, the purpose of inferential statistics is to predict or estimate characteristics of a population from knowledge of the characteristics of only a sample of the population. (328 words)
What is the purpose of examining a sample of a population?
选项 A、To tabulate collections on data
B、To compare different groups
C、To consider all the quantitative variables
D、To predict characteristics of the entire population
答案D
解析 从文章第三段最后两句“the proportion for the entire district could be estimated fairly accurately from a sample of as few as 100 children．Thus，the purpose of inferential statistics is to predict or estimate characteristics of a population from knowledge of the characteristics ofonly a sample ofthe population．”可知，通过抽样调查一部分群体的特征， 便可以推测估算出整体群体的特征，也就是说抽样调查是为了估测整个群体的特征。据此 判断，答案是D。
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