How Charts Lie

Question 1

A world brimming with charts

Answer 1

to be full of something; to fill something

Question 2

The moment we turn on the TV, open a newspaper, or visit our favorite social media network, we are bombarded with flashy charts.

Answer 2

1. to attack somebody with a lot of questions, criticisms, etc. or by giving them too much information
2. (of things) attracting attention by being bright, expensive, large, etc.

Question 3

Some authors with a taste for the hyperbolic even talk about a “tyranny of numbers” and a “tyranny of metrics”, referring to the pervasiveness of measurement.

Answer 3

1. (of language) deliberately exaggerated; using hyperbole
2. the fact of existing in all parts of a place or thing; the process of spreading gradually to affect all parts of a place or thing

Question 4

They imbue us with X-ray vision, allowing us to peek through the compexity of large amounts of data.

Answer 4

to fill somebody/something with strong feelings, opinions or values

Question 5

a Republican establishment that distrusted him; a bare-bones campaign that was often was often in disarry; and numerous controversial remarks about wemon, minorities the U.S. intelligence service, and even veterans.

Answer 5

1. the people in a society or a profession who have influence and power and who usually do not support change
2. to feel that you cannot trust or believe somebody/something
3. a lack of order or organization in a situation or a place

Question 6

Many pundits and politicians predicted Trump’s demise.

Answer 6

1. a person who knows a lot about a particular subject and who often talks about it in public
2. the end or failure of an institution, an idea, a company, etc.

Question 7

The map suggests a triumph by a landslide but Trump’s victory wasn’t a landslide.

Answer 7

an election in which one person or party gets very many more votes than the other people or parties

Question 8

Critics of President Trump were quick to excoriate him for handing out the country-level map to visitors.

Answer 8

to criticize somebody/something severely

Question 9

As someone who strives to keep a balanced media diet, I follow people and publications from all ideological stripes.

Answer 9

a type, category or opinion; a long narrow line of colour, that is a different colour from the areas next to it

Question 10

Seven electors go rogue, voting for people who weren’t even candidates.

Answer 10

to suddenly start doing something unexpected, especially something dangerous, wrong or against the rules

Question 11

To my surprise, when I arrived, I didn’t land in the United State of Ameraica - if I follow Kid Roclk’s nomenclature - I landed in deep Dumbfuckistan.

Answer 11

a system of naming things, especially in a branch of science

Question 12

there is no crime wave - there have been a few recent bobbles, but many of our big cities have seen both a surge in the foregin-born population and a dramatic, indeed almost unbelievable, decline in violent crime.

Answer 12

1. 小毛球
2. a sudden increase in the amount or number of something

Question 13

Based on my own experience as a chart designer and journalist who’s made plenty of silly mistakes, I’ve learned to never attribute to malice what could be more easily explained by absentminedness , rashness, or sloppiness.

Answer 13

1. attribute sth to sth/sb: to say or think that something is the result or work of something or someone else
2. a desire to harm somebody caused by a feeling of hate
3. absent-mindedness: the fact of tending to forget things, especially because you are not thinking about what is around you, but about something else
4. rashness: the fact of doing something that may not be sensible without first thinking about the possible results
5. the fact of showing a lack of care, thought or effort

Question 14

But fudging with scales is just one of the many strategies used by swindlers and liars from all ideological denominations.

Answer 14

1. to present or deal with something in a way that avoids giving clear and accurate information
2. a person who cheats somebody in order to get something, especially money, from them
3. 分支，派別

Question 15

As the saying goes, more research is needed but the tentative evidence we have suggested that many of us are cajoled by the mere presnece of numbers and charts in the media we consume, no matter whether we can interpret them well.

Answer 15

1. (of an arrangement, agreement, etc.) not definite or certain because you may want to change it later
2. to make somebody do something by talking to them and being very nice to them