University of the Aegean School of Sciences Department: SAFM Course: English Group: 3 Instructor: E. Landrou / elandrou@aegean.gr WRITING 2: DESCRIBING GRAPHS A. Understanding charts There are three important things to look at in a chart before you write: the title of the chart - this will tell you what is being shown overall, and it usually gives the time period that it represents (e.g. 1980-2000) the titles of the vertical and horizontal axes - these will tell you what the units of measurement are (e.g. centimetres, kilos, euros) and what groups are being compared the key or legend (if there is one) - this will tell you what groups or time periods are shown. 1. Look at the line graph below and decide if the statements are true (T) or false (F) according to the information shown. 1
1. The graph shows the number of people over 16 who were unemployed 2. The graph covers a period of just over 3 years 3. In July 2006 the number of unemployed people rose to over 5,000 4. The unemployment rate at the beginning of the period was 5.1 per cent B. Vocabulary Read the description of the line graph below and do the exercise that follows. The line graph shows the US inflation rate from 1929-2000. It is clear that the inflation rate fluctuated a lot during this time. There was an abrupt drop in 1930 and 1931, when prices fell by about 9%. A few years later inflation rose significantly to 3%. There was a big surge in inflation in the beginning of the 1940s, followed by an equally sharp decrease. Inflation soared again in the second half of the 1940s. Then it stabilized at about 1% during the early 1960s. There was a substantial rise during the second half of the 1970s but then inflation tumbled in the early 1980s, from 12% to 1%. 1. The highlighted words in the description of the chart that you ve just read are useful phrases for describing increases and decreases. Read the report again and find phrases from the text which mean the same as these: 1. go up and down a lot 2. go down a lot (3 phrases) 3. go up a lot (4 phrases) 2
4. go down a little 5. don t change ** For more phrases see Appendix, pages 8-10 2. There are two useful sentence structures for describing increase and decrease. Look at the examples below: 1 [noun phrase] + [verb] + [adverb] For example: The unemployment rate rose rapidly. The cost of living fell dramatically. 2 [There is/are] + [noun phrase] For example: There was a rise in unemployment. There has been an increase in the cost of living. Practise by finishing each sentence below so that it means the same as the one given. 1. The price of oil rose sharply. There.. 2. There is a noticeable increase in temperature from May onwards. Temperature.. 3. The number of people attending the theatre has fallen dramatically. There.. 4. There has been a steady rise in DVD sales for the first six months of the year. DVD sales.. 5. There has been a rapid growth in the use of alternative energy sources. The use.. C. Prepositions Correct use of prepositions is also important. Here are some of the main prepositions you will need to use: PREPOSITIONS OF TIME in [month / year / morning, afternoon etc] at [9 o clock, 10.30 am etc] from..[a point in time]..to [another point] between [a point in time]..and [another point] during [a period of time] before [a point in time or a period of time] after [a point in time or a period of time] by [a point of time arrived at, no sooner than] until [a point of time reached] since [from a point in the past until now] 3
PREPOSITIONS OF QUANTITY to rise from $1m to $2m to increase by 100% a decrease of 50% to fall from $2m to $1m to fall by 50% to remain (stable)/stay (stable)/stabilize at 2% 1. Complete the following sentences with the correct preposition 1. January there was a noticeable rise in the number of people taking sick leave from work. 2. From 1996 2006 there was a steady increase in sales of organic produce. 3. June sales figures had been low, but later they began to increase rapidly. 4. From November the end of the year energy consumption continued to rise. 5. There has been a marked decrease in road accidents the new laws were introduced in 2005. 6. The price of the oil rose sharply nearly $11 per barrel. 7. The price remained $11 or $13 per barrel until 1979. 8. For the next few years the price fell about 5%. 9. In 2000 there was an increase 10%. D. Practice (Assignment) 1. Read the description of the line graph in exercise A1 (page 1) and draw the missing section of the line. The line graph shows figures for unemployment in the UK workforce between May 2003 and July 2006. It is clear from the chart that the rate of unemployment fluctuated a great deal during this time. At the beginning of the period, unemployment stood at 5.1 per cent. A few months later the figure had risen slightly to 5.2 per cent. Unemployment then remained stable until September 2003. From this point on there was a steady downward trend and by January 2004 the rate had fallen to 4.9 per cent. It stayed at this level until May the same year, but from May to July there was another small drop of 0.2 per cent. There were no further changes in the level of unemployment until March the following year. From March to May 2005, there was a small increase of 0.2 per cent, but this did not last long and the figure had fallen back to 4.8 per cent by July. From September 2005 onwards, however, there was a marked upward trend in the rate of unemployment in the UK. From September 2005 to November the same year, the figure shot up from 4.8 to 5.2 per cent. The rate remained stable for a few months, but then rose sharply again, and had reached a peak of 5.7 per cent by July 2006. 4
2. Choose one of the line graphs below and write a description (the country is UK in graphs b- d). a. b. 5
c. d. 6
Answers Α. Understanding charts Exercise 1 a. False (it shows the percentage) b. True (according to the key, the chart covers the period from May 2003 to June 2006) c. False (the rate rose to over 5.6%) d. True B. Vocabulary Exercise 1 a. fluctuate a lot b. abrupt drop, sharp decrease, tumble c. rise significantly, a big surge, soar, substantial rise d. fall e. stabilize (at) Exercise 2 1. There was a sharp rise in the price of oil. 2. Temperature increased noticeably from May onwards. 3. There has been a dramatic fall in the number of people attending the theatre. 4. DVD sales have been rising steadily for the first six months of the year. 5. The use of alternative energy sources has grown rapidly. C. Prepositions Exercise 1 1. In 2. to 3. By / In 4. to / until / till 5. since 6. to / by 7. at 8. by 9. of / by 7
Appendix: Vocabulary for describing trends or movements in graphs To go up (a little) Nouns an increase a rise a growth an improvement an upturn an upward trend Verbs to increase to rise to grow to improve to go up To go down (a little) Nouns a decrease a fall a drop a decline a downturn a downward trend Verbs to decrease to fall (off) to drop to decline to go down to slip To go up a lot Nouns a surge an upsurge a jump a leap Verbs to surge to take off to shoot up to soar to rocket to jump to leap 8
To go down a lot Nouns a plunge a slump a crash a tumble Verbs to plummet to plunge to slump to crash to sink to tumble No change to remain stable to level off to stay at the same level to remain constant to stagnate to stabilize Change of direction to peak to reach a peak to top out to reach a low point to bottom out to recover to rebound to revive To describe the degree of change Adjectives a dramatic a considerable a sharp a significant a substantial a moderate a slight rise or fall Adverbs to rise or fall dramatically considerably sharply significantly substantially moderately slightly 9
To describe the speed of change Adjectives an abrupt a sudden a rapid a quick a steady a gradual a slow rise or fall Adverbs to rise or fall abruptly suddenly rapidly quickly steadily gradually slowly Notice that: The verbs rise, grow, increase, and so on are NOT followed by the preposition up. The verbs fall, drop, decrease, and so on are NOT followed by the preposition down. Prepositions to rise from 1m to 2m to increase by 100% a decrease of 50% to fall from $2m to $1m to fall by 50% 10