节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2014-04-12
难易度:High
关键字:insight, trustworthy, contradict, variation, random sample, NSA (National
Security Agency), terroris
Welcome back.
Earlier today we talked about the importance of polls in reflecting public
opinion.
In order for polls to be accurate and useful, they must be done in a scientific
manner with a random sample.
Otherwise, they are just a form of entertainment and not trustworthy.
Let's continue with the next section to learn about some examples of why the
words used in poll questions can be just as important as using a random sample.
Let's Take a Poll.
Last June, major polling groups Gallup, Pew/Washington Post and CBS News asked
the American public their opinion regarding the NSA's collection of phone calls
and email messages.
The results seemed to contradict each other a great deal.
The Pew/Washington Post poll showed 56 percent approving of the NSA's action,
while the Gallup poll showed 53 percent disapproving of that action.
As journalist David Moore pointed out, one poll mentioned terrorism while
another mentioned privacy concerns.
Such variation in poll questions can affect respondents' thinking and lead to
wildly different results.
So remember, the public opinion revealed in polls may not always represent the
masses!
(Music).
(Chinese).
And now let's go to our teachers.
Thank you, Michelle.
Wow, there are some big opinion differences between these poll results regarding
the same issue.
There sure are.
It's hard to tell what the American public actually thinks.
But I think we should look at that phrase: American public.
We've been talking a lot about public opinion and the public.
But how else can this word be used?
Well, if you want to talk about the people from a certain country or area, you
can say the name of the people group before the word public.
So American public means the people who live in the United States of America.
So if you wanted to take a poll of the people in Japan, you could talk about the
Japanese public.
And in our lesson today, we learn that the American public doesn't have a
unified opinion on the NSA's collection of phone calls and email messages.
Right. We read that they contradict each other a great deal.
But what does that mean?
If something is done a great deal, that means it is done a lot.
Or if there is a great deal of something, that means there is a lot of it.
You could say the two sisters have a great deal in common.
That doesn't mean that they're going to make a really good deal.
It means that they are very similar and have a lot of things in common.
But in our lesson we learn that the poll results have a great deal of
contradictions or that they contradict each other a lot.
This means that the results of these polls don't really agree with each other.
Right.
So one poll showed that 56 percent approved of the NSA's actions, while the
other poll showed that 53 percent disapproved of their actions.
How could this be possible?
Did one of the polls fail to do a random sample?
Well, we learned that one journalist pointed out that the ways the poll
questions were asked were quite different.
One poll mentioned terrorism while another mentioned privacy concerns.
Ah, I think that if a poll talks about safety and the possibility of a terrorist
attack,
then people would be more likely to agree that the NSA did the right thing to
protect the American people.
But if the poll presents the topic as a privacy issue, then maybe they wouldn't
agree.
Well, right now it's time for us to join Steve and Ken in the Information Cloud.
Then watch a review skit.
And of course, join Linda for the Editor's Summary.
Raise your hand if you think English is difficult.
And if so, why?
There are many things that factor into the success of learning a foreign
language,
like a student's motivation and what kind of language-learning resources are
available.
One of the biggest factors is how close the foreign language is to a student's
native language.
This is measured by comparing things like vocabulary, grammar, phonetics and
writing systems.
Think of the Sun as your native language, and each planet a foreign language.
The further into space you travel, the more incomprehensible the languages
become.
So if English was the Sun, what language do you think Mercury or Venus might
represent?
Maybe Spanish or Swedish?
Moving further out, we pass Earth and Mars.
They represent languages that are even more perplexing to native English
speakers like Polish and Turkish.
Right. So what about Neptune, the planet furthest from the Sun?
What languages do you think might it represent?
Well, because of their mystifying writing systems and bewildering vocabulary,
native English speakers are just baffled by languages like Arabic, Japanese and
Chinese.
Friends, which languages do you think are closest to or furthest from your own
native language?
(Chinese).
Oh... Look! According to this report, the government is collecting personal
information.
Really?
I wonder what our citizens think about that.
I don't know.
Let's take a poll and find out.
Good idea! We can gain insight into public opinion.
Let's get some volunteers.
No... wait! Respondents shouldn't be volunteers.
Why not? The poll will be entertaining.
Yeah, but it won't be an accurate representation of public opinion.
Good point.
Let's select a random sample.
Then the poll will be scientific and trustworthy.
Exactly.
Let's survey, say, 50 people.
No. Let's survey 100 people.
No. Let's survey 1,000 people.
Yeah! So, what should we say in our poll?
Let's see... say collecting information keeps people safe, and ask them what
they think about it.
Do they like it?
Well, they'll say that they like it.
Everyone wants to be safe.
Well, that's true.
Oh, then say that collecting information is a loss of privacy, and ask them if
they like that.
Well, they'll say no.
No one wants to lose privacy.
Yeah. So how can we ask the question?
Hmm... Ask in a way that won't affect the respondents' thinking.
Yeah, good idea.
OK. I'll start by asking the man down in the lobby.
OK.
And you can finish by asking 999 other people.
Hey! That...
Have you ever been involved in a poll?
Did you know that it is the most common way for businesses and even governments
to find out what public opinion is?
But they should only be taken seriously if the sample of people taking the poll
is really representative of the general public's opinion.
And how does that happen?
Through random sampling.
That is the only trustworthy, scientific method for polling.
You could even change poll outcomes through the way questions are asked.
Last year, three major polling groups in the United States asked people's
opinion about the NSA's phone call and email collection.
The answers seemed to contradict one another.
But actually the results came out so differently because of the variations in
the questions.
So perhaps polls don't reveal public opinion or the opinion of the masses of
people after all.
Thank you, Linda.
And thank you for joining us today for this important lesson on polls.
And we hope that you were able to gain a greater understanding of how polls work
and increased your English knowledge at the same time.
Well, we'll see you next time right here on Studio Classroom.
See you then.