IELTS MATERIALS 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 Model 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 by 2010 There were also considerable increases, of approximately 30 percentage points, for those with a high school diploma or an unfinished college education (reaching 65% and 85% respectively in 2010) However, graduates and postgraduates proved to have the greatest level of ownership in 2010, at 90% and 95% respectively, 20 percentage points higher than in 2002 The last decade has seen a substantial growth in computer ownership in general, and across all educational levels 2.The graph below presents the employment patterns in the USA between 1930 and 2010 Summarise the information by selecting and report in the main features, and make comparisons where relevant Write at least 150 words Model answer : In 1930, 75% of the labour force in the USA was employed in farming, fishing and foresting while only 10% worked in sales and office and trade At the same time both the Industrial sector and the technical sector constituted just 2% of the workforce each This situation changed only very gradually over the next 20 years, except for the technical workforce, which increased more than threefold However by 1980 there had been a significant change in the pattern of employment While the farming, fishing and foresting employees had declined in number to 40% of the workforce, Industrial employees as well as technical had increased their share to 13% and 10% respectively Similarly the sales and office sectors did not increase until 1980 The most dramatic change could be seen by 2000, when the proportion of farming, fishing and foresting works reduced to just 10% while the three other major sectors had all increased to over 20% of the workforce The bar chart below shows the number of houses built per year in two cities, Derby and Nottingham, Between 2000 and 2009 Write a report for a university lecturer describing the information shown below Write at least 150 words Model answer 01: The bar chart describes the number of houses built in two neighboring cities, Derby and Nottingham, Between 2000 and 2009 Overall, the number of houses that were erected in Derby exceeded upwards the quantity constructed in Nottingham The trend for the former was decidedly upwards, with Derby experiencing a steady rise from 40 new houses in the first year, to just under 120 during the 2003 Over the next years of decade, new houses construction in Derby remained constant at just under 120 This is in sharp contrast to the last two years when the number of houses that went up in Derby leapt, first to 280 and then to 350 houses Houses building in Nottingham, by comparison, was much more erratic In the first two years of the decade, more houses were erected in Nottingham than in Derby In 2002, however, construction declined to only 20 Over the next three years, houses numbers rose steadily, only to drop practically to zero in 2006 There was then a dramatic surge in 2007 with over 200 houses being built While in 2008 saw house building in Nottingham plummeting to only 10, in 2009 the number of new houses rocketed to 270, a rise of more than 2600 % on the previous year Summarise the information by selecting and reporting description of the correlation of the table that follow Write at least 150 words Model answer : There is a clear correlation between the litres of beer consumed per capita and number of alcohol related deaths The table shows that the greatest beer consumption in 2002 was to be found in Czech Republic, Germany and Austria, and that each of these regions also had by far the largest litres of alcohol related deaths in 2005 Czech Republic, with the greatest beer consumption per litre, namely over hundred and thirty for 2002, also experienced well over one million litres alcohol-related deaths by 2005 The region with the second highest beer consumption was Germany, with nearly 107 litres, and it also recorded the second highest number of alcohol-related deaths, namely 1.185 million In all regions except Canada it can be seen that the higher beer consumption, the higher the alcohol-related mortality rate It is interesting that in Canada, with the lowest level of beer consumption, at 86 per capita, the mortality rate was the high as in Ireland, namely 0.58 million, although in the latter the consumption level was high Clearly other health or economic factors must be involved It is also interesting to note that in each case the number of female death was significantly lower than that of males, which seems to be a reflection of the fact that in general far fewer women than men drink The line graph shows Paris Metro station passengers Summarise the information by selecting and report in the main features, and make comparisons where relevant Write at least 150 words Model answer 01: The line-graph indicates the number of people using a metro station in Paris over a given day of year The number of passengers rises sharply in the morning reaching a peak of 400 at am After the morning peak there is a steady drop to 300 at am and less than 200 at 10 am Between 10 am and 11 am there is a slight increase The number plateaus just below 300 between 12 noon and pm In the afternoon, there is a decline in the number of citizens using the station to just 80 at pm The evening brings a huge increase from 200 at pm to almost 400 at pm The number of passengers tapers off slightly after pm, but falls quickly to 120 by pm After a small rise at pm, the number tails off to 120 at 10 pm All in all, the time series show that the greatest number of passengers gather in the station early in the morning and also early in the evening The bar chart shows the number of visitors to three London Museums between 2007 and 2012 Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant Write at least 150 words Model answer: The bar chart illustrates information about how many people per year visited three London museums over six-year period from 2007 to 2012 Overall, what stands out from the graph is there was gradual upward trend in the number of visitors of the National Gallery, which became the most popular museum from being at last place, while the Victoria and Albert Museum followed the opposite trend In detail, in the first two years of the period, the number of visitors of Victoria and Albert Museum remained stable at 13.5 million, and then fell to million in 2010, while that of British Museum, dropped significantly by 50%, from 12 million to million and remained at this level in 2009 However, there was gradual upward trend in the number of visitors of both British Museum and Victoria and Albert from 2010 to 2012, the former number doubled and the latter rose by more than 50%, finishing at 14.5 and 40 million respectively In addition, there was significant increase of the number of visitors of National Gallery over the whole six-year period, the figure finishing at almost 16 million The pie chart gives information on UAE government spending in 2000 The total budget was AED 315 billion Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant Write at least 150 words Model answer: The graph tells us about the budget of the UAE government in 2000 In general, the most important targets were social security, health, and education The biggest slice of the pie chart is taken up by social security including pensions, employment assistance and other benefits which made up slightly under one-third of total expenditure Health and personal social services was the second highest budget cost Hospital and medical services accounted for AED 53 billion, or about 15% of the budget Education cost UAE AED 38 billion which comprises almost 12% of the whole budget The government spent about seven percent of revenue on debt, and roughly similar amounts went towards defence (AED 22 billion) and law and order (AED 17 billion) Spending on housing, transport and industry totalled AED 37 billion Finally, other expenditure accounted for AED 23 billion All in all, the bulk of UAE government spending goes on social welfare and health However, education, defence, and law and order are also major areas of spending You should spend about 20 minutes on this task The table below highlights data on the number of travelers using three major German airports between 2007 and 2012 Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant Write at least 150 words Model answer: The table shows information about how many people visited Germany through three major airports, over a five-year period, there was a fluctuant trend in the number of travelers who travelled via Dusseldorf, while the other two airports saw an upward trend Another interesting point is that Frankfurt airport was the most popular at the end Once the cans have been filled they are sealed and cooked over heat to ensure that the cans are sterilized When the cans are cool, a label is attached and they are placed into storage The canned apple is now ready to be despatched to supermarkets and sold 32 The flow chart illustrates the consequence of deforestation Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features Write at least 150 words Model Answer: The flow chart shows what typically occurs as a consequence of deforestation When trees are removed, there are four main immediate effects, which eventually result in flooding, degraded vegetation and a loss of biodiversity One immediate effect is soil which has been compacted by heavy equipment The result hard, ‘baked’ soil contributes to the run off of rain water and, eventually, flooding Another immediate consequence of logging is a reduction in the number of roots holding the soil together This leads to soil erosion As a consequence, the quality and variety of vegetation is compromised The third immediate effect is burning, both deliberate and a consequence of an increased risk of forest fires The waste that remains after loggings is destroyed and the microorganisms that feed on this material are lost This leads to degraded vegetation The final immediate consequence is a reduction in the amount of moisture plants return to the air Because there is less moisture in the air, there is less precipitation and an increased incidence of drought This too reduces plant growth and ultimately results in degraded vegetation and a loss of biodiversity 33 You should spend about 20 minutes on this task The chart below gives information about global population percentages and distribution of wealth by region Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant Write at least 150 words Model Answer: The chart compares population shares in various regions of the world with the distribution of wealth in these same regions It can be seen that population shares in almost all cases not relate to the distribution of wealth Even though North America has only approximately 6% of the world’s population, it boasts nearly 34% of global wealth A similar situation can be seen in Europe, which has 15% of the global population but 30% of global wealth, and the rich Asia-Pacific countries with 5% of the world’s population but 24% of its wealth On the other hand, the total wealth of people in China, India, Africa, Latin America and Caribbean, and the other poor countries in Asia-Pacific is far less than their shares of the world population This is most striking in India, where 16% of the world’s population own only 1% of the world’s wealth and in China, which has the highest percentage of global population (24%) but only 3% of the world’s wealth Overall, the world population statistics are inverse in proportion to wealth distribution If the former is higher, then the latter is likely to be lower 34 The bar charts below show the Marriage and Divorce Statistics for nine countries in 1981 and 1994 Write a short report for a university lecturer describing the information shown below Write at least 150 words MODEL ANSWER The bar graphs demonstrates the number of marriage and divorce in different nations for the years 1981 and 1994 As can be seen from the chart, with the exception of Denmark the rate of marriage in all of these countries diminished over the surveyed period while that of divorce experienced an increase in five out of nine nations As is presented in the bar chart, the marriage rate in 1981 in the USA was by far the highest among the reported nine nations which was more than 10 per thousand In other European countries, including United Kingdom, France, Finland, Denmark, Italy, the marriage rate was around for each thousand Denmark had the lowest rate of marriage in 1981 which was about 5/thousand After 15 years the marriage rate fell slightly in a majority of the given nations with the exception of Denmark with the rate rising by nearly 2/thousand It is noticeable from the divorce statistic that the highest rate of divorce rate was in the USA which was over per thousand The divorce rate in 1994 went on in comparison with that in 1981 in all of the nations apart from USA and Denmark Italy had the lowest divorce rate among the given nations and there was no change in this rate for the given years in Germany 35 You should spend about 20 minutes on this task The bar chart below shows the production of the world’s oil in OPEC and non-OPEC countries Write a short report for a university lecturer describing the information shown below Model answer: The graph gives past, present and future data concerning the production of world’s oil on OPEC and non-OPEC countries The figures indicate that while the production of oil in Middle Eastern OPEC countries is predicted to increase considerably, oil production elsewhere is likely to fall Between 1980 and 2000, most of the world’s oil came from non-OPEC countries; only two million barrels per day were produced by OPEC countries Since then, these figures have changed considerably Between 2000 and 2010 it is predicted that approximately 10 million barrels will come from Middle Eastern OPEC countries, while a further 10 million barrels will be provided by other OPEC or non-OPEC countries Although forecasters predict that oil production is likely to stabilise between 2010 and 2020, a lot more of this oil is expected to come from the Middle Eastern OPEC countries, and under million barrels per day from other areas 36.The diagram below shows the process by which bricks are manufactured for the building industry Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant Write at least 150 words Model Answer: The process by which bricks are manufactured for the building industry can be outlined in seven consecutive steps First the raw material, clay, which was just below the surface of soil in certain clay-rich areas has to be dug up by a digger Then the lumps of clay are placed on a metal grid in order to break up the big chunks of clay into much smaller areas, which fall through the metal grid onto a roller, whose motion further segregates the bits of clay Sand and water are added to make a homogenous mixture, which is then either formed in molds or cut into brick-shaped pieces by means of a wire cutter Those fresh bricks are then kept in a drying oven for at least 24 and a maximum of 48 hours, several dozen if not hundreds of bricks at a time The dried bricks are then transferred to a so-called kiln, another type of high temperature oven First they are kept at a moderate temperature of 200C – 1300C This process is followed by cooling down the finished bricks for 48 to 72 hours in a cooling chamber Once the bricks have cooled down and have become hard, they get packaged and delivered to their final destination, be it a building site or storage 37 You should spend about 20 minutes on this task The graph below shows the changes in maximum number of Asian elephants between 1994 and 2007 Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant Write at least 150 words Model Answer: The graph shows the estimated maximum population of elephants in a range of Asian countries in both 1997 and 2004 In most of the countries included in the graph, the population fell This was most noticeable in Malaysia and Thailand, where the number of elephants was thought to be less than half the figure in 1997 In the former, the number of elephants dropped as low as 1000 India remained the country with by far the largest elephant population, but experienced a dramatic fall in numbers so that in 2004 there may have been as few as 7500 Despite its size, China had a very small population of at most 500 elephants by 2004 Although the trend was downwards overall, elephant populations were thought to have remained stable in Laos and Vietnam at approximately 1200 The only country where elephants showed signs of recovering was Cambodia, where numbers may have risen by up to 200 38 The table below gives information on internet use in six categories by age group Describe the information in the table and make comparisons where appropriate Write at least 150 words Age Group Activity % Teens 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s 70+ Get news 76 73 76 75 71 74 70 Online games 81 54 37 29 25 25 32 Downloads 52 46 27 15 13 Product research 79 80 83 79 74 70 Buying a product 43 68 69 68 67 65 41 Searching for people 31 23 23 24 29 27 Model Answer: Comparing activities, we can see that getting news is the most popular activity with users of all ages At least 70% of people use the internet to get news Whilst 80% of teenagers play online games, this table drops to 54% of people in their twenties and 37% of people in their thirties Online gaming reaches a low of 25% with people in their fifties and then increases in popularity with older people Downloads activity display a similar trend to internet games, but they are less popular in general and decline markedly with people over age 40 Only 6% of people over age 70 download Online Product research is made by over seventy percent of all people except for teenagers who not research product Product research peak in the forties age group, when almost three-quarters of people research for product in this way Buying a product online is equally popular with all internet users except those at either end of the age scale: teens and internet users age 70 or older Searching for people online is done by between one-quarter and one-third of people depending on age, except for teenagers who make only five searches out of every 100 39 The table shows the average length of YouTube video advertisements and average length of time viewers spend watching them Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features Write at least 150 words Type of YouTube ad Average length of Average time YouTube ad (seconds) viewed(seconds) Public service 66.7 28.1 Business and finance 35.1 24.6 Entertainment and news 30.8 26.5 Travel 28.7 23.0 Technology 39.3 20.9 Retail 26.5 20.1 Consumer electronics 24.9 17.3 Clothing 23.4 16.6 Pharmaceuticals 21.8 16.0 Lifestyle 33.7 14.3 Overall 38.1 20.4 Model Answer: The table shows the average length of YouTube video advertisements by sector and average length of time viewers spent watching these advertisements The average length of the advertisements varied from a low of 21.8 seconds for pharmaceuticals to a high of 66.7 for public service advertisements With the exception of government- and technology- related advertisements, in general, products and services which required a large financial commitment tended to have longer advertisements Entertainments, financial services and travel advertisements, for example, were all twenty eight seconds on average or longer Less expensive products, on the other hand, such as consumer electronics, clothing and medicines, tended to have shorter advertisements Adverts for more expensive products or services also tended to be watched for longer than adverts for less expensive items Viewers on average watched more than 50 per cent of advertisements for entertainment, travel, business and finance In contrast, viewers tended to watch less of government advertisements and advertisements for cheaper goods such as consumer electronics, clothing and medicines Overall, length of YouTube video advertisements and length of time spent viewing such advertisements appears to be associated with the perceived cost of the product or service being advertised 40 The table below gives information about rail transport in four countries in 2007 Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant Write at least 150 words Country Number of People using rail transport (not including metro) Passenger kilometres Passenger kilometres per head of per head of population population Malaysia 5.9 770 22.2 Canada 0.3 80 2820 China 27 1980 23.01 UAE 5.5 780 21.9 Model Essay The table shows details for four countries concerning the percentage of the population who use the railways, how many kilometres each person travels on average, and the number of tons of cargo the railways carry What is surprising is that very few Americans use rail- less than half of one per cent- and they not travel far (just 80 kilometres) However, the Canada carries by far the most cargo, nearly thousand billion tons This contrasts greatly with China, where 27% of the population use rail, and they each travel further (1980 kilometres) than any of the other countries On the other hand, less than 25 billion tons of freight is carried The two countries which are most similar are the Malaysia and UAE Both have between and 6% of people who use trains, they travel between 770 and 780 kilometres and the amount of freight is approximately the same (22.2 and 21.9 billion tons respectively) In general it can be seen that while citizens of the Canada use rail transport the least, they transport the most amount of cargo by rail