TED演讲:为什么你应该热爱统计学(4)

 And I was so thrilled with this study, I started to take questions out in presentations. I was referring to it. 我对这个研究感到很兴奋，并开始在各种演讲中提出这个问题。

Now, I did a presentation at St. Paul's School for Girls in Hammersmith, 我曾经在哈默史密斯的圣保罗女子中学做过一个演讲，

and I had an audience rather like this, except it was comprised entirely¹ of sixth-form girls. 当时我有一群像现在这样的观众，唯一的差别是观众都是六年级的女学生。

And I said, "Girls, how many teenage girls do you think the British public think get pregnant every year?" 我说道，“姑娘们，你们觉得英国公众认为每年有多少个青春期女孩怀孕？”

And the girls were apoplectic² when I said the British public think that 15 out of every 100 teenage girls get pregnant in the year. 当我说出答案，女孩们是非常生气的，我说英国公众认为每一百个青春期女孩中每年有15个怀孕。

And they had every right to be angry, because in fact,  当然她们有生气的缘由和权利，因为实际上

I'd have to have closer to 200 dots before I could color one in, in terms of what the official figures tell us. 根据官方数字，按比例，我必须要有近200个点才能将一个空白圆圈涂满色。

And rather like numeracy, this is not just an English problem. 和计算能力一样，这同样不仅仅是英国的问题。

Ipsos MORI expanded the survey in recent years to go across the world. 伊普索莫利机构在最近几年在世界范围内扩展了调查研究。

And so, they asked Saudi Arabians, for every 100 adults in your country, how many of them are overweight or obese³? 他们问沙特阿拉伯人，在你们国家，每一百个成年人中有多少个超重或是有肥胖症？

And the average answer from the Saudis was just over a quarter. 平均答案是四分之一多一点。

That's what they thought. Just over a quarter of adults are overweight or obese. 那是他们认为的。仅仅是四分之一多一点的成年人超重或有肥胖症。

The official figures show, actually, it's nearer to three-quarters. 官方数据显示，实际上，这个数字接近四分之三。

So again, a big variation.  这又是一个巨大的差异。

And I love this one: they asked in Japan, they asked the Japanese, for every 100 Japanese people, how many of them live in rural areas? 下面这个调查我很喜欢：他们问了日本人，每一百个日本人里面 有多少人住在乡下？

The average was about a 50-50 split, just over halfway⁴. 平均答案大概是一半，稍高于50%。

They thought 56 out of every 100 Japanese people lived in rural areas. The official figure is seven. 他们认为每100个日本人中有56个居住在乡村地区。而官方数字是7。

1 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

2 apoplectic   

adj.中风的；愤怒的；n.中风患者

参考例句：

• He died from a stroke of apoplexy.他死于中风。
• My father was apoplectic when he discovered the truth.我父亲在发现真相后勃然大怒。

3 obese   

adj.过度肥胖的，肥大的

参考例句：

• The old man is really obese,it can't be healthy.那位老人确实过于肥胖了，不能算是健康。
• Being obese and lazy is dangerous to health.又胖又懒危害健康。

4 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。