BEVO’S DAY OFF

Written by Jacquee S. Evans

This is my friend Bevo. He is the University of Texas mascot and today is his day off. Since he had nothing to do today, he decided he would go out on the town!

Bevo was starving! He hadn’t eaten anything all day! Therefore, he knew the first thing he should do was get something to eat. Since Bevo is a Texan, he had to go get barbeque!

But Bevo had one problem!

He had three keys but was unsure which key was for his car!

Bevo wondered which key is the most probable to be chosen? The car key or the wrong key? What do you think?

RIGHT!!! He knew it would probably be the wrong key,

because the possibility of picking the car key was lower than the possibility of picking the wrong key. The car keys chances were 1 out of 3, while the wrong keys chances were 2 out of 3.

Bevo decided to take a chance anyway and

guess what…

He picked the car key! He always has good luck! That must be why UT’s sports teams win so many games!

Once he found his key, he left to go eat.

After Bevo couldn’t bear to eat anymore barbeque, he decided he would go to the park to pick flowers. However, he was faced with another problem!

He really liked the red flower because it stood out in the crowd of yellow flowers, but he usually likes to pick flowers with his eyes closed because it relaxed him. He wondered if it was possible for him to still pick the red flower even with his eyes closed.

Bevo thought to himself. It is possible, but it’s not probable.

He decided there was only one way to find out. So he closed his eyes, leaned down to grab one and…

LUCKY BEVO!

There had to be hundreds of yellow flowers. Who knew Bevo would get the red one he wanted?

Let’s assume there were exactly 200 flowers at the park. That means 199 of the flowers were yellow and only one was red. His chances of picking the red flower was only 1 out of 200, while his chances of picking a yellow one was 199 out of 200.

Anyone else would have chosen the yellow flower because it’s the most possible to happen.

I only wish I was as lucky as Bevo!

Don’t you?

As soon as Bevo left the park, he had one more thing he wanted to do before it was time to go home. He had a basketball game the next day so he needed to get his rest.

He wanted to go pick up some T- shirts to give to a few fans at the basketball game. UT was playing Texas A&M, a huge rival school, so Bevo wanted to do something special.

He wanted to give away all burnt orange T- shirts; yet, once again, he faced with a problem!

The store sold orange and white shirts, but because the shirts were selling so quickly, the customers no longer had a choice of what color shirt to get. The employees handed each customer which ever color they grabbed first.

There were NO negotiations!

All the colors were mixed inside the box so that no one would know what color they were getting.

However, some customers were getting all of the same color. Most of these customers walked away with white.

Bevo didn’t know how many T- shirts were in the store in all, but he could tell that most of the shirts left were white.

Yet, he was still feeling lucky from early today, so he decided to take a chance. He really hoped he would get all burnt orange shirts.

It was now Bevo’s turn. He walked up to the employee and asked for ten shirts. The employee grabbed the first ten shirts he saw without paying any attention to the colors he picked.

I wonder which colors did Bevo get? If the chances of getting more white shirts than orange shirts are more probable, would he still get all oranges?

Bevo looked at all the shirts given to him.

POOR BEVO!!!

He wasn’t so lucky this time! Out of the ten shirts he wanted, he got eight white shirts and only two orange shirts.

This time reality made more sense. If there were more white shirts in the box than orange ones, it was improbable for him to get all orange shirts.

Bevo didn’t mind too much though. He knew the fans would appreciate the shirts no matter what color they were.

He said to himself, “I can’t win them all! It’s better I lose some of my luck now instead of during tomorrow’s game!” So he left the store with a smile on his face.

The next day finally arrived and Bevo was so excited for the game. He made it to the Erwin Center, where all the basketball games are played, and saw that it was packed already!

Once he was inside, he passed out ten shirts to some lucky fans just like he said he would.

Bevo hoped, as he watched the game, that the Longhorns would be lucky enough to win.

The Longhorns didn’t need luck though. Practice made them a good team! They beat Texas A&M by 3 points with the game winning shot! The score was 84- 81!

Now that Bevo understands probability (the chances something will happen) and his favorite team won their game, he could go home happy.

HOOK ‘EM HORNS!

TEKS• 4.13A List all possible outcomes of a probability experiment such as coin

tossing.• 4.13B Use a pair of number to compare favorable outcomes to all

possible outcomes such as 4 heads out of 6 tosses of a coin.

• ELL Strategies• Interactive storyline • Definition of probability