英语学习点: Statistics Vocabulary 统计术语

How do you gauge a country's well-being?

The usual approach is to look at economic indicators like GDP or employmentfigures, or social ones like literacy levels or crime rates.

But in Britain politicians are seeking a much more basic measure of the public's well-being: its happiness.

From this month, as part of an annualsurvey, 200,000 households in Britain will be asked some rather unusual questions. They are:

How happy are you? How happy did you feel yesterday? How anxious did you feel yesterday? To what extent do you feel the things in your life are worthwhile?

The large sample size means that researchers are hoping to minimise the questionnaire'smargin of error. Statisticians will try to correlaterespondents' answers about happiness to other variables, such as their income or where they live.

The Prime Minister David Cameron has signalled that he may allow his policies to be shaped by the responses to these questions.

But Sheila Lawlor, from the think tank Politeia, thinks that politicians should fix the economy before probingthe national mood, which is less measurable.

"I don't think this [government] should start thinking about well-being and happiness, which are not very easy to measure; it should concentrate on a framework so we can have the things that will increase our well-being."

• vocabulary [və´kæbjuləri, vəu-]   n.词汇；词汇量   (初中英语单词)
• employment [im´plɔimənt]   n.工作；职业；雇用   (初中英语单词)
• measure [´meʒə]   n.量度；范围 vt.测量   (初中英语单词)
• annual [´ænjuəl]   a.每年的 n.年刊   (初中英语单词)
• survey [´sə:vei]   vt.&n.俯瞰；审视；测量   (初中英语单词)
• unusual [ʌn´ju:ʒuəl]   a.不平常的；异常的   (初中英语单词)
• yesterday [´jestədi]   n.&ad.昨天；前不久   (初中英语单词)
• anxious [´æŋkʃəs]   a.担忧的；渴望的   (初中英语单词)
• extent [ik´stent]   n.长度；程度；范围   (初中英语单词)
• sample [´sæmpl, ´sɑ:mpəl]   n.样品；试样 vt.尝试   (初中英语单词)
• income [´inkʌm]   n.收入，所得   (初中英语单词)
• minister [´ministə]   n.部长；大臣 v.伺候   (初中英语单词)
• economy [i´kɔnəmi]   n.经济；机制；组织   (初中英语单词)
• concentrate [´kɔnsəntreit]   v.聚集；浓缩；全神贯注   (初中英语单词)
• margin [´mɑ:dʒin]   n.边缘；空白；余地   (高中英语单词)
• statistics [stə´tistiks]   n.统计学；统计   (英语四级单词)
• well-being [´wel´bi:iŋ]   n.幸福；健康；福利   (英语六级单词)
• framework [´freimwə:k]   n.骨架；计划；机构   (英语六级单词)