【Uncertaintyspreadsthroughourlivessothoroughlythatitdominatesourlanguage，Oureverydayspeechismadeupinlargepartofwordslikeprobablymanysoongreatlittle.Whatdothesewordsmean?Suchverbalimprecisionisnotnecess】

　　Uncertaintyspreadsthroughourlivessothoroughlythatitdominatesourlanguage，Oureverydayspeechismadeupinlargepartofwordslikeprobablymanysoongreatlittle.Whatdothesewordsmean?

　　Suchverbalimprecisionisnotnecessarilytobecriticized.IndeedithasavalueJustbecauseitallowsuwtoexpressjudgmentswhenaprecisequantitativestatementisoutofthequestion.

　　Wehavebeentryingtopindownbyexperimentswhatpeoplemearibytheseexpressionsinspecificcontextsandhowthemeaningschangewithage.Forinstanceasubjectistold"Therearemanytreesinthepark"andisaskedtosaywhatnumberthewordmaymeantohim.Orachildisinvitedtotake"some"sweetsfromabowlandwethencounthowmanyhehastaken.Wecomparethenumberhetakeswhenheisalonewiththenumberwhenoneormoreotherchildrenarepresentandaretotakesomesweetsafterhimorwiththenumberhetakeswhentoldtogive

　　“some"sweetstoanotherchild.

　　Firstwefindthatthenumberdependsofcourseontheitemsinvolved.Tomostpeoplesomefriendsmeansaboutfivewhilesometreesmeansabouttwenty.Howeverunrelatedareassometimesshowparallelvalues.Forinstancethelanguageofprobabilityseemstomeanaboutthesamethinginpredictionsabouttheweatherandaboutpolitics:theexpressioniscertainto(rainorbeelected)signifiestotheaveragepersonabouta70percentchance;islikelytoabouta60percentchance;probablywillabout55percent.

　　Secondlythesizeofthepopulationofitemsinfluencesthevalueassignedtoanexpression.Thusifwetellasubjecttotake"afew"or“alotof"glassballsfromaboxhewilltakemeiftheboxcontainsalargenumberofglassballsthanifithasasmallnumberButnotproportionatelymore:ifweincreasethenumberofglassballseighttimesthesubjecttakesonlyhalfaslargeapercentageofthetotal.

　　Thirdlythereisamarkedchangewithage.Amongchildrenbetweensixandfourteenyearsoldtheolderthechildthefewerglassballshewilltake.Butthedifferencebetweenalotandafewwidenswithage.Thisageeffectissoconsistentthatitmightbeusedasatestofintelligence.

　　51.What'stherightattitudetowardsthewordslikeprobablyanyandsoon?

　　A.Theyar