IELTS Updates

Task 1 The graphs show changes in the spending habits of people in the UK between 1971 and 2001. Write a report to a university lecturer describing the data. - Show / Hide Sample Answer - The provided pie charts give information on the spending habits of UK citizens in 1971 and 2001. As is observed from the charts, the expenditure on petrol & furniture reduced significantly while the amount spent on computers increased in the UK. In 1971, the British spent 36% on petrol which was the highest percentage among the given expense categories. Their expense on Furniture was the second largest (32%) while they spent one quarter on restaurant meals. The least portion was spent by them for purchasing computers, which was only 7% in this year. After 30 years, the expense to buy petrol and furniture reduced to 8% each, significantly lower than the percentages spent in 1971. But the expense made on computers increased by 5% in 2001. People spent 1% on books in...

Task 1 The graph below shows the changes in the maximum number of Asian elephants between 1994 and 2007. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. - Show / Hide Sample Answer - The bar graph provides information on the number of elephants in different countries between 1997 and 2004. Generally speaking, in India and Myanmar, the maximum number of elephants inhabited and the total number of elephants decreased over time. As is presented in the bar graph, approximately 10 thousand elephants lived in India in 1997 which was the highest among the given countries. Myanmar is the second largest country for elephants’ dwelling. Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and China had about 1000 elephants in 1997 while Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Thailand had roughly 3000 elephants. The least number of elephants were in China in 1997. After 7 years, in 2004, the number of elephants in all countries decreased except in Laos. Th...

Task 1 The line graph shows thefts per thousand vehicles in four countries between 1990 and 1999. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant. - Show / Hide Sample Answer - The line graph compares the number of car thefts, measured in thousands, in four countries from 1990 to 1999. Overall, it can be seen that car thefts were far higher in Great Britain than in the other three counties throughout the whole time frame. To begin, car thefts in Sweden, France and Canada followed a fairly similar pattern over the first five years, all remaining at between 5 and 10 per thousand. The general trend though for France and Canada was a decline in the number of vehicles stolen over the period, with both at around 6 in 1999. In contrast, Sweden experienced an upward trend, starting the period at approximately 8, and finishing at just under 15. Interestingly, car thefts in Great Britain started at 18 per thousand, w...

Task 1 The table below shows consumer preferences for the features of automatic washing machines in different countries. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Sample Answer ▼ The table shows the kinds of automatic washing machine features consumers prefer in four European countries. Overall, each country favours a different style and spin speed. The latter feature ranges from 850 rpm for the Germans, 800 rpm for the Swedes, 700 rpm in the United Kingdom (UK) to 600 rpm in France. Consumers in Germany and Sweden share the same preferences as to shell dimensions (34" & wide), drum material (stainless steel), capacity (6 kilos) and washing action (tumble). By comparison, the British and French prefer a 34" & narrow shell, an enamel drum, a 5-kilo capacity and an agitating action, respectively. Only the UK wants a top loader, while the remaining three countries favour f...

Task 1 The illustrations show how chocolate is produced. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant. Sample Answer ▼ The diagram explains the process for the making of chocolate. There are a total of ten stages in the process, beginning with the growing of the pods on the cacao trees and culminating in the production of the chocolate. To begin, the cocoa comes from the cacao tree, which is grown in the South American and African continents and the country of Indonesia.  Once the pods are ripe and red, they are harvested and the white cocoa beans are removed. Following a period of fermentation, they are then laid out on a large tray so they can dry under the sun.  Next, they are placed into large sacks and delivered to the factory. They are then roasted at a temperature of 350 degrees, after which the beans are crushed and separated from their outer shell. In the final stage, this inner part tha...

Task 1 The pie chart shows the amount of money that a children’s charity located in the USA spent and received in one year. Summaries the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant. Sample Answer ▼ T he pie charts show the amount of revenue and expenditures in 2016 and for a children’s charity in the USA. Calibration of date is done in percentage. Overall, the total amount of income was just enough to cover the expenditures. Moreover, donated food made the highest share in total income while the maximum money spent on program service. To begin with, donated food provided the most of the revenue for the charity, at 86%. Similarly, with regard to expenditures, program services, calculated for nearly all of the outgoings, at 95.8%. The other categories were much smaller. Community contributions were the second largest revenue source, brought in 10.4% of overall income, and this was followed by program revenue...

Task 1 The bar graph below shows the numbers of male and female research students studying six computer science subjects at a US university in 2011. Summarise the information by selecting and report in the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Sample Answer ▼ The bar chart shows the gender distribution of students doing computer scientific research across a range of disciplines at a US university in 2011. In five of the six disciplines, males outnumbered females. Male students made up a particularly large proportion of the student group in subjects related to the study of programming objects: mathematics, programming, and engineering. The gender gap was particularly large in the field of mathematics, where there were five times as many male students as female students. Men and women were more equally represented in subjects related to the study of computer science: natural sciences, psychology, and linguistics. In natural science, there were nearly as...

Task 1 The line graph shows estimated sales of gold in Dubai for 12 months in 2002 in millions of Dirhams. Write a report describing the information in the graph below. - Show / Hide Sample Answer - The given line graph shows data on Gold sales in Dubai from January to December of the year 2002. As is presented in the illustration, the highest amounts of sales were done in March and lowest sales were in July and September. As is presented in the line graph, initially in January 2002, two hundred millions of Dirham Gold was sold in January and this amount kept increasing for the next two month and in March it reached to 350 million which is the largest amount throughout the whole year. After that, the sales volume keeps declining steadily and reached to 110 million in July. With some fluctuations, the sale amount reached to 200 million in August and finally, in December, it totalled about 200 million. In summary, Mars was the best month for Dubai Gold sales i...

Task - 1 The two maps below show the changes in the town of Denham from 1986 to the present day.  Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant. Sample Answer The maps illustrate the main changes which have taken place in the town of Denham from 1986 to the present moment. Overall, the town has most notably shown an increase in housing development, which indicates a higher population and a move away from agriculture and farming. One change that stands out is that there has been a significant redevelopment over the whole period. To the east of the river stoke, housing now dominates the area of what was once farmland. In 1986 there were shops and just a handful of residential properties. Now there are neither shops nor farmland left, although the post office is still there. The bridge over the river stoke still stands as it did in 1986. Another noticeable change is that more roads have been built aro...

Task 1 The tables below provide information about the consumption and production of potatoes in five parts of the world in 2006.  Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Sample Answer ▼ The table data illustrates per person potato consumption and total production of this crop in five different regions in the world- South and Central America, Africa, North America, Europe, and Asia, in 2016. According to the information provided, Europeans ate more potatoes than the citizens of other regions on an average and Asia harvested the largest quantity of potatoes in 2016. In details, Europeans were the chief consumers of potatoes in 2006 as each European ate 96.1 kilograms potatoes. Then, North America and Asia followed the second and the third highest consumer list of this crop, 57.9 and 25.8 kg per person intake respectively. It is interesting to note that an average European consumed almost the ...

Task 1 The diagram below shows the life cycle of the honey bee. Write a report for a university, lecturer describing the information shown below. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant. Sample Answer ▼ In the diagram life cycle of a honey bee is being shown. In general this cycle takes thirty-four to thirty-six days. The cycle starts when females lay their eggs. Actually they lay one or two eggs once in every three days. Those eggs hatch after nine or ten days depending on environmental and genetical variations. After hatching of the eggs it took five days for nymphs to get out of their eggs. Since then they start emerging to young adults slowly. The nymphs can moult three times as they grow and in general this happens in fifteen days. It can be understood that they have become young adults by looking stripes on their back, if this stripes have emerged it means that the nymphs have become young adults...

Task 1 The pie chart below shows the proportion of different categories of families living in poverty in the UK in 2002. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Sample Answer ▼ The pie chart shows data on the different family types under the poverty line in the year 2001 in the UK. As is presented in the graph, sole parents and single person without children were the highest in percentages who lived in the destitute condition in the UK in 2002. According to the pie chart, people in the UK who were poor mostly fell under the sole parent category in 2002. This was the highest, more than one quarter, among the given categories of families who lived in paucity. The second largest segment who were needy were the single person without any child and their percentage was 24%. Couples with children had a 15% poverty rate while it was less than 10% for single aged people, aged couple and couples with childre...

Task 1 The graphs below give information about computer ownership as a percentage of the population between 2002 and 2010, and by level of education for the years 2002 and 2010. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.  Sample Answer ▼ The bar charts show data about computer ownership, with a further classification by  level of education, from 2002 to 2010. A steady but significant rise can be seen in the percentage of the population that owned  a computer over the period. Just over half the population owned computers in 2002,  whereas by 2010 three out of four people had a home computer. An analysis of the data by level of education shows that higher levels of education  correspond to higher levels of computer ownership in both of those years. In 2002, only  around 15% of those who did not finish high school had a computer but this figure had  trebled ...

Task 1 The line graph below gives information on cinema attendance in the UK.   Write a report for a university lecturer describing the information give. Sample Answer ▼ The given line graph illustrates information on the percentage of people who went to the movies in the United Kingdom between 1990 and 2010. The people's attendance is divided into four different age groups. Overall, younger people seemed to, and are predicted to, be more active in movie going than their older counterparts. However, all four age groups showed a gradual increase in attendance numbers during the given period, except for a slight drop between 1995 and 2000.  To be specific, a larger percentage of people between the ages of 24 and 34 went to, and are expected to, go to the cinema than those in any other age group. Approximately 51% of the respondents from this age group are expected to attend movies in 2010 compared with only 38% in 1990. Even in the group that had th...

Task 1 The diagrams below show the changes that have taken place at Queen Mary Hospital since its construction in 1960. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Sample Answer ▼ The diagrams show Queen Mary Hospital at three different stages in its development: 1960, 1980 and 2000. In 1960, the hospital was built close to a main road and next to a shopping center. A large area behind the hospital was turned into a car park, while the area behind the shopping center was farmland. By 1980, the shopping center had been demolished in order to make way for two additional hospital building which became a pharmacy and a cancer center. Furthermore, the hospital gained the farmland and converted it into a nursing school. In 2000, the main hospital building remained unchanged but the cancer center was extended to cover the entire nursing school. As a result of this, the original car park w...

Task 1 The diagram below shows the life cycle of a salmon, from egg to adult fish. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant. Tips: Write your description of the diagram by answering the following questions: Where and in what form do salmon begin their lives? When the young salmon emerge from eggs, where are they reared? Before swimming to the ocean, where do the young fish migrate to? What happens to salmon during their time in the ocean? Where do the adult fish then travel to, and why? What happens that completes the cycle? How do you write an overview or summary about a 'life cycle' diagram?  Count the number of stages in the life cycle. Decide on a beginning and an end point in the cycle. Sample Answer ▼ The provided diagram displays the life cycle of a salmon fish dividing it into different stages, from birth to maturity. Overall, a salmon fish g...

Task - 1 The table shows the worldwide market share of mobile phone manufacturers in the years 2005 and 2006. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Sample Answer ▼ The table data shows the leading mobile phone manufacturers’ global market share in 2005 and 2006. Generally speaking, Nokia had the highest global market share of cell phone both in 2005 & 2006 and the market shares of Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson increased in 2006 than their share in 2005. As is presented, Nokia had the largest market share (one-third of total) in 2005 and their market share increased by 2.5% next year. Motorola had the second highest market share comprising over 17% in 2005 and their market share increase by roughly 4%. Samsung had been able to maintain the third position for their worldwide mobile phone market share, though their share decreased to 11.8% in 2005 compared to 12.7% in the previous year. On the oth...

Task - 1 The three pie charts below show the changes in annual spending by a particular UK school in 1981, 1991 and 2001. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Sample Answer ▼ The given pie charts illustrate a UK school's annual spending and show the changes over two decades. As is seen in the provided pie charts, the school spent an increasing percentage of money on teachers' salaries, with the maximum of 50% being spent in 1991, after which it was reduced by 5% in 2001. Also, this remained the area, where the highest percentage of the money was spent, in the given three years. Expenditure on other workers' salaries decreased significantly over the years with 28%, 22% and 15% in 1981, 1991 and 2001 respectively. Again, the percentage spent on resources like books also decreased after a slight increase of 5% in 1991. Investment on furniture and equipment saw a substantial decline from 15% t...

Task 1 The bar chart shows the scores of teams A, B and C over four different seasons. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant. - Show / Hide Sample Answer - The bar chart shows the scores of three teams, A, B and C, in four consecutive seasons. It is evident from the chart that team B scored far higher than the other two teams over the seasons, though their score decreased as a whole over the period. In 2002, the score of team B far exceeded that of the other two teams, standing at 82 points compared to only 10 for team C and a very low 5 for team A. Over the next two years, the points for team B decreased quite considerably, dropping by around half to 43 by 2004. In contrast, team A’s points had increased by 600% to reach 35 points, nearly equal to team B. Team C, meanwhile, had managed only a small increase over this time. In the final year, team B remained ahead of the others as their p...

Task 1 The table shows the Proportions of Pupils Attending Four Secondary School Types Between Between 2000 and 2009. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant. Secondary School Attendance 2000   2005   2009 Specialist Schools 12% 11% 10% Grammar Schools 24% 19% 12% Voluntary-controlled  Schools 52% 38% 20% Community Schools 12% 32% 58%   Sample Answer ▼ The table illustrates the percentage of school children attending four different types of secondary school from 2000 to 2009. It is evident that whereas the community schools experienced a marked increase in the proportion of those attending their institutions over the period, the others saw a corresponding decline. To begin, the percentage of pupils in voluntary-controlled schools fell from just over half to only 20% or one fifth from 2000 to 2009. Similarly, the relat...