Numbers in the news.

• Position: NEWS & TRENDS

1,742 AVERAGE NUMBER OF text messages sent and received each month by 13-to-17-year-olds in the U.S.

SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES

18 PERCENTAGE OF parliament members worldwide who are female, up from 11 percent in 1995.

SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES

20,000 AVERAGE NUMBER OF names added to the F.B.I.'s terrorist watch fist every month.

SOURCE: HARPER'S

59% PERCENTAGE DECREASE in the number of applications for U.S. citizenship since January, when the application fee increased from $400 to $675.

SOURCE: TIME

50% PERCENTAGE INCREASE in sales on Amazon of Naughty Monkey red peep-toe pumps--which Governor Sarah Palin wore when Senator John McCain introduced her as his running mate on August 29.

SOURCE: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

QUIZ 1

(1) Which of the following does a poll about presidential elections not do?

a Reliably predict the outcome of an election

b Help politicians better target swing voters

c Reveal what people care about and why

d Provide a glimpse of how the public is thinking at a particular moment

(2) What potting error in 1948 was partly responsible for the widespread assumption that Thomas E. Dewey would defeat Harry S. Truman?

a Pollsters stopped interviewing the public several weeks before the election.

b The samples were not randomly selected.

c Pollsters used persuasive language to affect the results.

d Some poll results were misplaced and not accounted for in the final tallies.

(3) Exit polls in Florida presented an inaccurate picture of who had won the presidency in the 2000 race between

a George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis

b Bill Clinton and Bob Dole

c George W. Bush and John Kerry

d George W. Bush and Al Gore

(4) The basic idea behind probability sampling is that

a a margin of error is not necessary when a...