英语时差：统计数值也会说谎？（下）

In the first year, remember, the business made one hundred thousand dollars. In the second year profits increased 100 percent–that means second-year profits were two hundred thousand dollars. In the third year profits decreased 75 percent–relative to the second year. So now we have to subtract 75 percent of two hundred thousand dollars from two hundred thousand dollars– leaving only fifty thousand dollars as the third year’s profits. Third-year profits are really only half of first-year profits! Darrell Huff calls this bit of confusion the Battle of the Shifting Base. The 100 percent increase was figured on one base, the 75 percent decrease on another. Concealing that fact is one way of lying with statistics.