Questions to ask English experts from Chinese learners (Round 25)

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Thank every member who answered readers' questions last time. Chinese English learners from Wechat are very happy to recieve your replies. Here are more questions from them:

Q1: Would you please explain to our readers what does “line 666” mean? Any stories?

Q2:  What are the differences among the following three words: number, data, and statistics?

Q3:  Which words refer to a man’s first wife and the other woman (mistress)? (You can write down what you may think.)

Q4: Which word do you think is the most beautiful English word in the world?

Q5: How do American girls take care of their hair? Using hair care products? Hair dryer? Any other ways?

Q6: Government in America is like a layered pyramid? What’s your understanding of it?

The previous rounds:

http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/thread-1181286-1-1.html

http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/thread-1168107-1-1.html

http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/thread-1161389-1-1.html

http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/thread-1136954-1-1.html

http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/thread-1124908-1-1.html

http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/thread-1101585-1-1.html

http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/thread-1085457-1-1.html

http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/thread-1076879-1-1.html

http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/thread-1070516-1-1.html

http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/thread-1062472-1-1.html

http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/thread-1052003-1-1.html
http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/thread-1042489-1-1.html

http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=1031041&extra=page3D1

http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=1031041&extra=page3D1

http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=1014003&extra=page%3D1

http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/thread-1006935-1-1.html
http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/thread-1000062-1-1.html
http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/thread-992089-1-1.htmlhttp://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=979283&extra=page%3D1
http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/thread-974617-1-1.html
http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/thread-971597-1-1.html
http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/thread-966834-1-1.html
http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=963247&extra=page%3D1
http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=959318&extra=page%3D1
http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=956074&highlight=English%2Bexperts

incarnationabc

Q4: Which word do you think is the most beautiful English word in the world?

beautiful

incarnationabc

Q3:  Which words refer to a man’s first wife and the other woman (mistress)? (You can write down what you may think.)

fancy woman
concubine
home wrecker
lover

incarnationabc

Q2:  What are the differences among the following three words: number, data, and statistics?

#1 number =0, 1, 2, 3, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3...

#2 data:
i.e. Mary is 20 years old; She has two brothers; She is 160 cm, etc. (This is called personal data)

#3 statistics:  You analyze and sort out the relevant info via some approaches, and then draw out a conclusion.

i.e. There are 1000 forumites on CD. If you need tell us how many there are females, and males, you go to the research via questionaire, data analysis, or phone call interview, etc., and then you draw a conclusion: Ten percent of the forum members are women; and the rest are all men. The conclusion is statistics.

futsanglung

Line 666 refers to the  line of that number in the poem by Milton called Paradise Lost and is where the Devil is mentioned, the number 666 is a reference to the Devil in the Bible and is called the number of the beast so Milton used this as a good place to introduce the Devil into his writing

Ratfink

Q1 - Line 666
In programming it's a reference to a line of code that causes the program to crash or halt for unknown reasons. This obscure "failure" has reasons that caused it that are unclear or unknown, hence it's intimated that it was caused by "the devil".

It's derived from a reference to "the Beast" or devil in the Bible. In the Book of revelations 13:18 it says "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six" This is the King James bible's version, which is the most poetic version.  Three score = 3 x 20.

Q2:
Number:
A word or symbol that represents a defined number (units) of something, for example two, three, 10, 1000 etc. It's also used for expressing any mathematical operation using units for example 2 apples plus 10 oranges = 12 units.

Data: Data is facts or information used to plan something. For example the number of people in a city based on age and income may be used to plan changes to sports facilities.

Statistics. It's a branch of mathematics that deals with the collection, organisation, analysis and interpretation of numerical data.  It's often used to make general conclusions about a set of data from the data collected.

Q3:
First wife:
Her Indoors
The missus / missus / me missus etc
The boss
The better half
The wife
She who must be obeyed
The little lady
The old bat (some old men call their wives this), it's derogatory.
wifey
ole lady (old lady)
Minister of finance
Fun controller

Mistress:
Bit on the side
mistress
other lover
kept woman

Q4: Impossible to say, there are so many beautiful words in the English language.  Some of my favourites are, Whisper, Windswept, Dales, Moors, Serene, universe and pyroclastic.

Q5: No idea, I am not an American woman.  From what I've seen though, lots of rubbish shampoo and conditioner with assorted extracts that don't seem to do much, hair colouring agents, curling irons - wand things, blow driers, crimping horrors, and long hours at the hair salon.  It's much easier being a guy, shampoo and some gel if your in to that stuff and done.

Q6: A layered pyramid is a good explanation of the model of US governance. Most countries are multi-layered but just how the power and responsibility are positioned varies.