A-2

Chapter: DATA HANDLING AND PRESENTATION
Class: 6 (Class 6)
Category: activity

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Question

Take a blank piece of paper and paste any small news item from a newspaper. Each student may use a different article. Now, prepare a table on the piece of paper as given below. Count the number of each of the letters ‘c’, ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘r’, and ‘x’ in the words of the news article, and fill in the table.

a. The letter found the most number of times is _______.

b. The letter found the least number of times is _______.

c. List the five letters ‘c’, ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘r’, ‘x’ in ascending order of frequency. Now, compare the order of your list with that of your classmates. Is your order the same or nearly the same as theirs? (Almost everyone is likely to get the order ‘x, c, r, i, e’.) Why do you think this is the case?

d. Write the process you followed to complete this task.

e. Discuss with your friends the processes they followed.

f. If you do this task with another news item, what process would you follow?

Question diagram(s):

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We count how often certain letters appear in a news story.

Step 1 — Choose a news item

First, we need a news item. We will use a sample news item here. Let us use this news item: "The recent discovery of a new species of insect in the Amazon rainforest has excited many scientists. Researchers believe this tiny creature could provide crucial insights into ecosystem health and biodiversity. Conservation efforts are now being considered to protect its unique habitat. Experts are hopeful that this finding will encourage more research and conservation actions across the globe."

Step 2 — Prepare the table

We draw a table like the one given in the question. We will count the letters 'c', 'e', 'i', 'r', 'x'. We will also choose 's' as our "Any other letter of your choice".

Step 3 — Count the letters

We read the news item carefully. We count each time a letter appears. We ignore if the letter is big (capital) or small.

• For 'c': recent (1), discovery (1), species (1), insect (1), creature (1), could (1), crucial (1), ecosystem (1), Conservation (1), considered (1), encourage (1), research (1), conservation (1), actions (1), across (1). $\text{Total for 'c'} = 15$
• For 'e': The (1), recent (2), species (2), insect (1), the (1), Amazon (1), rainforest (1), excited (1), many (1), scientists (1), Researchers (2), believe (2), creature (2), provide (1), ecosystem (2), health (1), biodiversity (1), Conservation (1), efforts (2), being (1), considered (2), protect (1), unique (1), Experts (2), hopeful (1), encourage (1), research (1), conservation (1), globe (1). $\text{Total for 'e'} = 38$
• For 'i': discovery (1), species (1), insect (1), in (1), rainforest (1), scientists (2), believe (1), this (1), tiny (1), insights (2), into (1), biodiversity (2), finding (1), will (1). $\text{Total for 'i'} = 16$
• For 'r': The (1), recent (1), discovery (1), rainforest (2), Researchers (2), creature (1), provide (1), crucial (1), research (1), conservation (1), across (1). $\text{Total for 'r'} = 12$
• For 'x': excited (1), Experts (1). $\text{Total for 'x'} = 2$
• For 's' (our chosen letter): species (2), insect (1), Amazon (1), rainforest (1), has (1), excited (1), scientists (2), Researchers (1), this (1), insights (1), ecosystem (1), its (1), Experts (1), this (1), actions (1), across (1). $\text{Total for 's'} = 17$

Now we fill the table with these counts.

| Letter | c | e | i | r | x | s (my choice) | | :---------------------------------- | :-: | :-: | :-: | :-: | :-: | :-----------: | | Number of times found in the news item | 15 | 38 | 16 | 12 | 2 | 17 |

Step 4 — Answer part a

We look at the table. We find the letter with the biggest number.

The letter 'e' was found 38 times. This is the highest count.

Step 5 — Answer part b

We look at the table again. We find the letter with the smallest number.

The letter 'x' was found 2 times. This is the lowest count.

Step 6 — Answer part c

We list the letters 'c', 'e', 'i', 'r', 'x' from smallest count to biggest count.

The counts are: 'c' = 15, 'e' = 38, 'i' = 16, 'r' = 12, 'x' = 2.

Ascending order: $\text{x (2) < r (12) < c (15) < i (16) < e (38)}$

So, the order is x, r, c, i, e.

This order might be a little different from what classmates get. This is because every news item is different. But the general pattern is often the same. Letters like 'e' are used very often in English. Letters like 'x' are used very rarely. This is why the order is usually similar for most English texts.

Step 7 — Answer part d

The process we followed was: We chose a news item. We drew the table given in the question. We picked an extra letter ('s') for the last column. We read through the news item word by word. For each letter ('c', 'e', 'i', 'r', 'x', 's'), we counted how many times it appeared. We wrote these counts in the table. Then, we used the numbers in the table to answer questions a, b, and c.

Step 8 — Answer part e

We would talk to our friends. We would ask them how they counted their letters. We would compare our counts and our final lists. We would see if our methods were the same or different.

Step 9 — Answer part f

If we do this task with another news item, we would follow the exact same process. We would choose a new article. We would draw the table again. We would count the letters in the new article. Then we would fill the table and answer the questions. The steps would not change.

Answer

a. The letter found the most number of times is e. b. The letter found the least number of times is x. c. The five letters in ascending order of frequency are x, r, c, i, e. This order might be slightly different from classmates due to different news items. However, the general trend (e.g., 'e' being most frequent, 'x' being least frequent) is often similar across English texts because some letters are used more often than others in the English language. d. We chose a news item, drew the table, selected an extra letter, counted each specified letter's occurrences in the news item, filled the table with the counts, and then used the table to answer the questions. e. We would discuss with friends how they chose their news item, how they counted the letters, and what their final counts and ordered lists were. f. We would follow the exact same process: choose a new news item, draw the table, count the letters, fill the table, and answer the questions based on the new counts.