Task: Probabilistic choice
C#: using System;

class Program
{
    static long TRIALS = 1000000L;
    private class Expv
    {
        public string name;
        public int probcount;
        public double expect;
        public double mapping;

        public Expv(string name, int probcount, double expect, double mapping)
        {
            this.name = name;
            this.probcount = probcount;
            this.expect = expect;
            this.mapping = mapping;
        }
    }

    static Expv[] items = {
        new Expv("aleph", 0, 0.0, 0.0), new Expv("beth", 0, 0.0, 0.0),
        new Expv("gimel", 0, 0.0, 0.0), new Expv("daleth", 0, 0.0, 0.0),
	new Expv("he", 0, 0.0, 0.0),    new Expv("waw", 0, 0.0, 0.0),
	new Expv("zayin", 0, 0.0, 0.0), new Expv("heth", 0, 0.0, 0.0)
    };

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        double rnum, tsum = 0.0;
        Random random = new Random();

        for (int i = 0, rnum = 5.0; i < 7; i++, rnum += 1.0)
        {
            items[i].expect = 1.0 / rnum;
            tsum += items[i].expect;
        }
        items[7].expect = 1.0 - tsum;

        items[0].mapping = 1.0 / 5.0;
        for (int i = 1; i < 7; i++)
            items[i].mapping = items[i - 1].mapping + 1.0 / ((double)i + 5.0);
        items[7].mapping = 1.0;

        for (int i = 0; i < TRIALS; i++)
        {
            rnum = random.NextDouble();
            for (int j = 0; j < 8; j++)
                if (rnum < items[j].mapping)
                {
                    items[j].probcount++;
                    break;
                }
        }

        Console.WriteLine("Trials: {0}", TRIALS);
        Console.Write("Items:          ");
        for (int i = 0; i < 8; i++)
            Console.Write(items[i].name.PadRight(9));
        Console.WriteLine();
        Console.Write("Target prob.:   ");
        for (int i = 0; i < 8; i++)
            Console.Write("{0:0.000000} ", items[i].expect);
        Console.WriteLine();
        Console.Write("Attained prob.: ");
        for (int i = 0; i < 8; i++)
            Console.Write("{0:0.000000} ", (double)items[i].probcount / (double)TRIALS);
        Console.WriteLine();
    }
}

Python: import random, bisect

def probchoice(items, probs):
  
  
  prob_accumulator = 0
  accumulator = []
  for p in probs:
    prob_accumulator += p
    accumulator.append(prob_accumulator)
    
  while True:
    r = random.random()
    yield items[bisect.bisect(accumulator, r)]

def probchoice2(items, probs, bincount=10000):
  
  
  bins = []
  for item,prob in zip(items, probs):
    bins += [item]*int(bincount*prob)
  while True:
    yield random.choice(bins)
      
      
def tester(func=probchoice, items='good bad ugly'.split(),
                    probs=[0.5, 0.3, 0.2],
                    trials = 100000
                    ):
  def problist2string(probs):
    
    return ",".join('%8.6f' % (p,) for p in probs)
  
  from collections import defaultdict
   
  counter = defaultdict(int)
  it = func(items, probs)
  for dummy in xrange(trials):
    counter[it.next()] += 1
  print "\n
  print "Trials:              ", trials
  print "Items:               ", ' '.join(items)
  print "Target probability:  ", problist2string(probs)
  print "Attained probability:", problist2string(
    counter[x]/float(trials) for x in items)

if __name__ == '__main__':
  items = 'aleph beth gimel daleth he waw zayin heth'.split()
  probs = [1/(float(n)+5) for n in range(len(items))]
  probs[-1] = 1-sum(probs[:-1])
  tester(probchoice, items, probs, 1000000)
  tester(probchoice2, items, probs, 1000000)