Dale has 9 homework assignments due this week, and he needs to finish 2 of them before his friend comes over this afternoon. In how many orders can he pick out and complete 2 of the assignments?

Other common expressions that implicitly have to do with probability are statements like, "N. C. State is a 2 to 1 favorite to beat Wake Forest today," or "I think ... that "the observed outcome (when the experiment is carried out) belongs to ... during the past decade to determine how many complete years of service the TV gave.