· 19 lists · 667 words

Knowledge and evidence

How somebody knows what they claim.

What holds these lists together

These lists are not about a subject but about how certain a statement is. A source, a sample and a memory are three kinds of evidence, and each has its own words for «we do not know exactly»: la congettura, il margine di errore, l’ipotesi. One word shows how Italian packs meanings that English keeps apart. Il campione is the sample a survey is drawn from and also the champion who wins the race, so un campione rappresentativo is a matter of statistics, not of sport. Anyone who cannot tell a conjecture from a finding reads every guess as a fact.

The 19 lists

B2Psychology and learningPerception, memory, motivation, habit — the words for talking about your own thinking.50 words B2History and sourcesSource, testimony, dating, interpretation — the words for speaking about the past without inventing it.50 words B2Statistics and numbersShare, mean, sample, spread — the words without which a number in a text cannot be placed.50 words C1University and researchFrom enrolment to the defence of the thesis.45 words C1Continuing educationCourses, funding, qualifications — and who recognises them in the end.34 words C1Astronomy and SpaceflightFrom the constellation to re-entry.40 words C2Book and LibraryManuscript, edition, shelfmark — books as objects and as a collection.38 words C2AstrophysicsLight, distance, mass — what can be concluded from what arrives.41 words C2Family historyHow to find someone nobody remembers any more.27 words C2Archaeology and the digTrench, layer, dating — and what a single find is able to prove.33 words C2The history of technologyWhy the best solution is not the one that wins.32 words C2Archives and recordsWhat gets kept, what gets destroyed, and why that is a decision somebody makes.21 words C2LibrarianshipOrdering, describing and keeping things within reach.21 words C2DendrochronologyA tree, read as a calendar.31 words C2ThermodynamicsHeat, work, entropy — and why none of it runs backwards.36 words C2CatalysisHow to speed a reaction up without being consumed by it.25 words C2Genetics and inheritanceFrom the base to the population — and what a test result actually says.43 words C2PalaeographyReading old handwriting, and knowing when it was written.25 words C2Science communicationHow a result finds its way out of the field.25 words

Spread across the levels

The category runs across the levels — it is an area, not a difficulty. If you practise it, you can also choose a level at the top of the practice page and then get only the part that sits there.

Level	Words	Share
B2	152	23 %
C1	119	18 %
C2	396	59 %

Practise this category

Multiple choice and gaps, across all 19 lists and all 667 words. Whatever you get wrong comes back tomorrow.