2 It would be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming to ask every citizen his or her opinion on a whole range of issues. Instead, polls rely on a sample of the populationa relatively small proportion of people who are chosen to represent the whole. Herbert Asher draws an analogy to a blood test to illustrate the principle of sampling. Your doctor does not need to drain a gallon of blood from you to determine whether you have a disease. Rather, a small sample of blood will reveal its propertiesIn paragraph 2, the word properties means positions. characteristics. territories. assets