Lesson 12

I. Read the following words and word combination and learn their meanings by heart:

to overestimate - переоцінювати; a phenomenon - явище; to describe - описувати; to deal with -пов'язувати, мати справу з; numerical - числовий; numerical data - цифрові дані; Antique World - Стародавній світ; qualitative - якісний; quantitative - кількісний; a branch - галузь, філія; to work out - розробляти; an index (indices) - показник, індекс; standards of life - рівень життя; a level - рівень; consumption - споживання; constantly - постійно; space - простір, космос

II. Read and translate the text: statistics

The role of statistics is hard to overestimate. As soon as a state is formed people begin to pay attention to the quantitative side of many social things. The more developed a society is, the more important role statistics plays in its life.

The word statistics comes from the Latin word "status" which means the state of things. The synonym of the state of things is a number of facts about certain social and economic phenomena and processes. They also describe statistics as a science which deals with mass numerical data.

Historically, statistics development starts with the formation of a state. One can find some traces of statistics and accounting in documents of the most developed countries of the Antique World.

One should remember that statistics, first of all, deals with the so-called quantitative side of things. However, the quantitative side is closely connected with the qualitative side of things.

Statistics consists of several sections. They are independent and at the same time these sections are closely connected with each other. At present lime they divide statistics into four main parts. They are: 1) statistics theory; 2) economic statistics; 3) branch statistics; 4) social statistics.

Statistics theory deals with the categories of this science, methods and means of analysis. Economic statistics deals with phenomena and processes that are taking place in an economy. It works out the whole system of economic indices and methods of study of an economy of a country or of a region. Branch statistics may be subdivided into industrial, agricultural, finance, social infrastructure, trade, banking, state budget and so on.

Each branch statistics works out the methods of calculation of indicators that show specific features of each branch taken separately.

Social statistics deals with social conditions and character of labour, standards of life, levels of profit and income, consumption of products and services by population. During all the time statistics as a science is developing side by side with the development of other theoretical sciences dealing with society.

Another no less important feature of statistics is that it studies the mass character of social phenomena. It means that statistics is constantly dealing with such phenomena which are repeating themselves and are changing in space and in the course of time.

III. Retell the text according to the following questions:

1. Is the role of statistics important in modern life? 2. What Latin word does statistics come from? 3. Does statistics deal with mass numerical data or with individual separate data? 4. Is statistics a modern science? 5. Statistics deals with the quantitative state of things, doesn't it? 6.1s statistics connected with the qualitative side of things? Can you give some examples? 7. What are the main parts of statistics? 8. What is the difference between statistics theory and economic statistics? 9. What parts is branch statistics subdivided into? 10. What aspects of human life does social statistics study? 11. What does the mass character of social phenomena mean? 12. What part of statistics do you consider the most important? Explain why.

IV. Arrange the words into pairs of:

1. synonyms:

essential, power, feature, concept, to remember, standard, branch, to study, to start, to deal with, level, field, to bear in mind, to begin, state, characteristic, important, category;

2. antonyms:

quantitative, mass, consumption, service, qualitative, separate, product, production, labour, thing, main, development, leisure, phenomenon, minor, stagnation.

V. Match "a career" on the left with "responsibilities" on the right:

1. Analyst _______ A person who performs the independent examination of and expressions of opinion on the financial statements of an enterprise.

2. Sales Manager _____ A person who is skilled in keeping accounts or who exams and inspects the account of a company.

3. Advertising Manager _________ A person who collects data in some sphere (field), say, marketing, banking, etc. from different sources, develops ideas and gives proper advice.

4. Auditor ___________ A person who is responsible for sales to consumers. Retail stores, stock brokerage, insurance companies employ such people.

5. Accountant _____ A person who is responsible for an advertising programme of a company.