second seems more compelling, probably because there is a popular notion that “numbers don’t lie.”2 Yet statistics—information presented in number form—are notorious for telling some of the biggest falsehoods and half-truths of all. Depending on how statistics are presented, they can cause people to reach incorrect conclusions and develop mistaken ideas about an issue. Advertisers can use them to convince consumers to seek out products that may be unnecessary or ineffective. Politicians can use them to make government programs seem more successful than they really are. Doubtful that numbers can be so deceptive? A look at a few claims shows that numbers—and statements based on them—aren’t always as straightforward as they seem.Claim #1: “The Evergreen school district has basketball fever! Data shows there are twice as many basketball players here than in South Pines.”3 Evergreen students must love hitting the courts, much more so than the students of South Pines, right? While this is a reasonable conclusion to make after reading the claim, it may be totally wrong. Ignoring the size of populations is one way that people can use statistics to mislead. The claim above doesn’t seem all that impressive if the Evergreen school district has 5,000 students and the South Pines district only has 500. A district with many more students would logically have more student athletes, including basketball players. Further, if the Evergreen district has 10 times the number of students but only twice as many players, basketball would actually be more

Question

second seems more compelling, probably because there is a popular notion that “numbers don’t lie.”2 Yet statistics—information presented in number form—are notorious for telling some of the biggest falsehoods and half-truths of all. Depending on how statistics are presented, they can cause people to reach incorrect conclusions and develop mistaken ideas about an issue. Advertisers can use them to convince consumers to seek out products that may be unnecessary or ineffective. Politicians can use them to make government programs seem more successful than they really are. Doubtful that numbers can be so deceptive? A look at a few claims shows that numbers—and statements based on them—aren’t always as straightforward as they seem.Claim #1: “The Evergreen school district has basketball fever! Data shows there are twice as many basketball players here than in South Pines.”3 Evergreen students must love hitting the courts, much more so than the students of South Pines, right? While this is a reasonable conclusion to make after reading the claim, it may be totally wrong. Ignoring the size of populations is one way that people can use statistics to mislead. The claim above doesn’t seem all that impressive if the Evergreen school district has 5,000 students and the South Pines district only has 500. A district with many more students would logically have more student athletes, including basketball players. Further, if the Evergreen district has 10 times the number of students but only twice as many players, basketball would actually be more

Choose the set of words from each drop-down menu that BEST completes the sentence.

The inference that some statistics may be more misleading when
numbers are compared is supported by the ideas in

Answer 1

the passage.