Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Task 1 Review
Task 1 Review
Task 1 Review
1 Openings
Begin by rewriting the title that you are given, but using different language, and make a general
comment on the statistics.
USEFUL PHRASES
Use synonyms:
The bar chart shows the number of children leaving school at the age of 16 between
1995 and 2000.
The bar chart illustrates the number of children who left school after they reached 16
years of age over a five year period, starting in 1995.
Make a general comment: Overall, the numbers are significantly lower in the later years of the
study.
2 The main body
Start with the most interesting point from the statistics. This is often the category that has
shown the greatest increase or decrease over the period of the study, although it may also be
the category that is the largest or the smallest.
USEFUL PHRASES
Describe a large change:
The most interesting growth occurred in the cities of Jakarta and Bombay.
The greatest change can be seen in the figures for the United States.
Describe the largest / smallest category:
Tokyo had by far the largest population in the year 1992.
The highest levels of smoking can be seen in Europe.
Levels of literacy were lowest in the African countries in the survey.
increase
Last year, the number of burglaries increased by 15 percent.
The percentage of households with a computer increased from 32.9% to 52%.
The world's population is increasing at a rate of 91 million people each year.
Land prices have increased dramatically during the last thirty years. (=by a surprisingly
large amount)
The ratio of women to men in management positions has been increasing steadily.
(=more women are becoming managers)
! Increase = to rise / to expand/ to soar / to escalate
! To double / to triple /to quadruple
Since 1990, U.S. imports of foreign goods have grown at a rate of 7.7 percent per year.
During the last 15 years, earnings have tripled for men and doubled for women.
After two years of no growth, the economy started to expand again in 2003.
Interest rates soared to over 100 percent.
Energy costs have escalated.
! STUDY NOTE: Grammar
The -ing forms of many of these verbs can also be used as adjectives, for
example:
the increasing demand for cheap goods
rising unemployment
the growing problem of industrial pollution
soaring inflation
escalating fuel costs
Continue to add comments on the information in order of importance. Try to make connections
between the different parts of the chart.
USEFUL PHRASES
Contrast results:
This trend is reversed in the under 16 category.
While the number of male smokers has fallen, the number of female smokers has
remained stable.
There was a clear distinction between the answers given by men and women.
Find similarities:
There was a similar trend in the United States.
A similar pattern can be observed among the unemployed.
What you say when comparing things or people
compared to/with used when comparing things or people, especially when comparing
numbers or amounts:
This year's profits are much higher compared to last year's.
The average male now has a life expectancy of 77.6 years, compared with 75 in 1960.
Total spending on health care represents about 4 percent of GDP. Compared to most
other advanced economies, that figure is low.
Mortality rates are lower for women as compared with men.
by comparison/in comparison when compared with another thing, person etc:
Young male drivers have far more accidents by comparison with other groups.
Wages are low in comparison with the US.
The amount of money spent on advertising milk pales in comparison to (=is much less
than) the money spent on advertising beer.
as against/as opposed to conjunction used when you are comparing two figures or
pieces of information, in order to show how they are different:
The company achieved sales of $404 million, as against $310 million in the previous
year.
One study predicted that 42% of female university graduates would remain single the
rest of their lives, as opposed to just 5% of male graduates.
unlike preposition used when saying that people or things are different:
Unlike his brother, he had no interest in music.
The drug has very few side effects, unlike other drugs that are used to treat this
illness.
in contrast/by contrast used when mentioning the difference between two things,
people, countries etc that you are comparing:
In contrast to the south of the island, the north is still untouched by tourism.
The US and Australia, in contrast with most other leading industrialized nations, chose
not to sign the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
Studies show that each execution costs $3.5 million. By contrast it costs about
$600,000 to keep someone in prison for life.
in proportion to/in relation to used when considering the relationship between the
amount or size of something compared to another thing:
People from Sweden pay the highest rates of tax in proportion to their incomes.
His head is big in proportion to the rest of his body.
Britain's national debt was greater than that of the US in relation to the size of its
economy.
3 Ending your description
You should keep a general comment on the statistics for the last sentence. It is important not to
speculate about the information or make suggestions, unless you are specifically asked to do so
in the question.
USEFUL PHRASES
Conclude your findings:
Overall, there was a general rise in pollution in all three countries.
Finally, we can see that there were significant differences in the results for the
different socio-economic groups.
4 Describing percentages
Try to generalize about percentages, rather than repeat the exact figure that you are given.
USEFUL PHRASES
Use fractions:
A third of the money was spent on entertainment.
Three quarters of the respondents stated that they were travelling for business
purposes.
The general construction for fractions is: a + third + of + the + plural verb.
For example: A quarter of the people had never smoked in their lives.
Half is an exception: a + half + of + the + singular verb, or half + the + singular verb.
For example: A half of the money was spent on food. =Half the money was spent on
food.
Use proportions:
Two out of three people felt that the government should be responsible, compared to
only one in four who felt that it was the responsibility of business and industry.
(Instead of two thirds or a quarter.)
If the first number is 1, use the preposition in. If the first number is higher than 1, use the
preposition out of. For example: One in three people would like to see the government
pay for higher education.
Three out of four people said that they had smoked at some time in their lives.
The line graph shows information on estimated sales of gold in Dubai for 12 months in 2002 in
millions of Dirham. It is (generally) true to say that there was a fluctuation in the sales of gold
during the year, witnessing the highest peak in March and reaching the lowest point in July.
As can be seen from the graph , Dubai gold sales were consistently above 200 milliom Dirhams
monthly , shooting up to a peak of 350 million Dirhams in March . By contrast , there were
steady decreases in the sales of gold for the next four months , experiencing an annual low of
120 million Dirhams in July
Another striking feature is that there was a significant increase with its sales almost doubling
from 120 million dirhams in July to 210 million dirhams in August . This was then followed by a
sharp drop , being similar to the July figure
As a final point , it is interesting to note that From September to October, sales recovered
slightly, from 120 to 180 million and then remained steady in October and November, but
later there was a modest increase in December to 190 million dirhams. (199 words)