Sign	Designation	Example	Wording
	Summation sign (capital sigma)	a	The sum from (a equals) one to n of x sub a
	Product sign (capital pi [pai])	a	The product from (a equals) one to n of x sub a
Log	Logarithm (log) sign	log 10 3	The log(arithm) of three to the base ten
′	Dash, prime	a′ b″	a dash times b double dash = a prime times b double prime
( )	Parentheses	3 (a+b)	Three multiplied by a plus b in parentheses = three times the sum of a and b= three times the quantity, a plus b= three, (initial) parenthesis, a plus b, (final) parenthesis
	[ ]	Brackets		Bracket, a+b, bracket, multiplied by c
	{ }	Braces		One third times (initial) brace, a, (initial) bracket, b plus k, (initial) parenthesis, c minus d, (final) parenthesis, (final) bracket, (final) brace
		Identity sign		a is identical to/with b
	>	Greater than sign	a > b	a is greater than b
	<	Less than sign	a < b	a is less than b
	≥	Greater than or equal to sign	a ≥ b	a is greater than or equal to b
	≤	Less than or equal to sign	a ≤ b	a is less than or equal to b
		Approximation sign		a is approximately(nearly) equal to b
	∞	Infinity sign	→ ∞	x tends to infinity = x approaches infinity
		Therefore sign		Therefore a equals b
		Differential sign		Differentialof x
		Derivative	;	(The first) derivative of y with respect to x = dy to dx ; the second derivative of y with respect to x
		Integral sign		Integral between limits x and y
	sin	Sine		Sine x
		Cosine		Cosine x
	tan	Tangent	Tan x	Tangentx
	cot	Cotangent	Cot x	Cotangent x

In pairs, look at the highlighted words and phrases. Try to guess what they mean from the context. Then check with your dictionary or teacher. Work out the list of the terms involved, make a kind of glossary.

Word these mathematical formulae.

a.

b.

c.

d.

e.

Unit 10

STATISTICS IS VERY SERIOUS!

Reading and Vocabulary

Read the article below and complete it with a word from the task 1 (column B).

STATISTICS IS VERY SERIOUS!

I am a first-year student at the University of Donetsk. I study at the Faculty of Mathematics and take a course in statistics.

When I made up my mind to be a statistician my friends laughed at me. Some of them quoted Mark Twain: ‘There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics’. Others quoted Andrew Lang, ‘He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts – for support rather than illumination’. I’ll try to prove that statistics is used for illumination rather than support.

A lot has changed since the times of Mark Twain. Today statistics is a science, a branch of applied mathematics. It is concerned with scientific methods for collecting, organizing, summarizing, presenting and analyzing data, as well as drawing 1_____ conclusions and making reasonable decisions on the basis of that analysis.

It’s being used more and more in various applications. In government many people are involved in collecting data from 2_____ and surveys. Such data are often referred to as ‘official statistics’. They are used to 3_____ and improve current policies. On a smaller scale, statistics is used in medicine, for example, to assess which of two treatments is better or to aid in the diagnosis of a patient. Statisticians are involved in agriculture, with the comparison of different fertilizers; in geology, with the estimation of oil resources; in the analysis of psychological experiments; in the actuarial profession, with the establishment of suitable premiums; in market research, to discover and interpret trends and frequencies; and in industry, in optimization of production and formation of advertising policies.

Statistical procedures can vary from the drawing and assessment of a few simple graphs to carrying out very complex mathematical analysis. There is clearly an 4_____ link between statistics and probability, which provides the mathematical basis for setting up models to describe 5_____ phenomena” .

As you see my profession requires 6_____ knowledge of the theory of probability and calculus, and we study those subjects in our first and second year. In our third year specialization begins. We are given specialized courses in sampling theory, statistical estimation theory, statistical decision theory, correlation theory. Some students begin doing their own research under the supervision of their scientific advisers. So, at the end of our study at the university we are prepared to apply our knowledge to practice.

You may ask me what a statistician actually does. The typical view is that you get data and hand it to a statistician. But this is a misconception. A good statistician will be integrated with projects right from the start, not sitting in a back room churning out numbers. Databases and special programming packages are the tools of the trade, but the main part of the job is the modeling phase where you build a model which 7_____ to describe the process which produces the data. With a model, you can answer questions such as whether a particular cancer treatment works.

I seem to have proved that statistics is very serious. Nevertheless, in conclusion I’d like to offer another joke. Have you heard this definition of a statistician? It’s someone who has his bottom in the oven and his head in the freezer and who says that his body temperature is average.