Thursday December 8, 2005
What are the odds?
By FADZILAH AMIN
I CAME across some betting terms in the newspapers but I can’t seem to understand their meanings:
1) The odds for Paris to win the 2012 Olympic Games are 1/5; for New York to win are 20/1; Madrid 12/1; Moscow 66/1 and London 7/2.
Which city has the greatest chance to win the 2012 Games?
2) “When betting was opened, we offered that the Queen’s hat was brown in colour at 12-1 but it quickly came down to 2-1, then evens and finally 8-11.”
What do the odds mean? – Richard Lim, Penang
1) The word “odds” means “the degree of probability in favour of or against some result”. In the odds you quoted for various cities to win the chance to host the Olympic Games of 2012, Paris with 1/5 is considered to have the greatest chance to win. The smaller the fraction, the greater is the chance of winning.
So, according to the figures quoted, this is the order of the cities according to their chances of winning: Paris 1/5, London 7/2, Madrid12/1, New York 20/1 and Moscow 66/1.
In betting, the odds with the larger figure on the left are called “odds against” which apply to all the cities except Paris. So if you bet for any of these cities and it wins, you will win money according to the odds quoted against it, e.g. if you bet RM2 for London, you will win RM7, and if you bet RM1 for Moscow, you will win RM66.
The odds with the larger figure on the right, are called “odds-on”, meaning success is more likely than failure, as is the case with Paris. So if you bet RM5 for Paris and it wins, you win only RM1. According to the figures you quote, Paris then is “the odds-on favourite” to win.
When you have odds of 1/1, that is called an “even money bet”, i.e. you have a 50-50 chance of winning or losing. So you get exactly the same amount as your bet, if you win.
2) The odds of 12-1 mean that the chances against “the Queen’s hat was brown in colour” were quite large. Then they came down to 2-1. When they evened, the odds must have been 1-1, and then they became odds-on at 8-11, meaning the chances were now more for “the Queen’s hat was brown in colour”.
Surpass, outdo, exceed
COULD you please tell me what’s different among these words – “surpass”, “outdo” and “exceed”?
Please tell me also the difference between “controversy” and “argument” and how to use these in a sentence. – Wai Luen
1. surpass, outdo, exceed
To outdo means to do better than someone or something.
To surpass means to do or be better than someone or something.
Thus, we can say: “The girls outdid / surpassed the boys in the examinations.” and we can say “She surpasses her sister in beauty.” but NOT “She outdoes her sister in beauty”, because beauty is a matter of being but not doing.
To exceed means (a) to be greater than something, but it is usually used for numbers or amounts, e.g. “The manager’s salary exceeds RM10,000 a month.”
(b) to do more than one is permitted to by law or some other rule, e.g. “He exceeded the speed limit of 110kph on a stretch of the highway, and was fined for speeding.”
2. argument, controversy
An argument is a discussion in which two or more people disagree, i.e. have different points of view. An argument can be conducted politely or angrily.
For example, you can say: “The two sisters are always having arguments about little things and they sometimes get angry with each other and raise their voices.” OR “I like having arguments with my friends about current issues, because we respect each other’s opinions, even though they might be different.”
There are other meanings of “argument” but I won’t go into those here.
A controversy is a public argument (often conducted in the mass media) about something that people have very strong and different views about.
You can say, for example: “A big controversy has just begun in Britain over the government’s plan to use more nuclear energy in future.”
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