[0:00]Welcome. In today's lesson, we're going to be looking at vocabulary for academic task one. So, we'll be looking at verbs for describing trends, adjectives and adverbs for describing trends. How we can describe periods of time, and also how we can describe fractions. So, by the end of this lesson, you will feel confident to describe tables, line graphs, bar charts and pie charts as well. We're going to start with the verbs for describing trends. Now, to help us with that, we're going to make a graph. Along the Y-axis, we're going to have the price of petrol in US dollars from 100 to 125 dollars. And then along the X-axis, we're going to have the year, ranging from 1980 to 2010. Now, just to help us, we're going to put in some grid lines as well. Let's start by learning some vocabulary to describe downward trends. So, imagine we've got a line graph, and we see a trend like this. So, in 1990, the price of petrol in the US was 115 dollars. But then in the year 2000, the price was 110 dollars. So, we can see that it's fallen by 5 US dollars. Let's look at some useful vocabulary for describing this trend. Well, we could say something like, between 1990 and 2000, the price of petrol decreased. Or, between 1990 and 2000, the price of petrol decreased by 5 USD. Even better. What other vocabulary and verbs are there for describing this downward trend? Well, we could say, between 1990 and 2000, the price of petrol fell. Or even, between 1990 and 2000, the price of petrol fell from 115 to 110 USD. I want to show you some useful verbs to remember for describing downwards trends. So, we've got the typical ones, decrease, fall, but we can also use other verbs like decline, drop, reduce or go down. Remember, IELTS examiners love to see a variety of different vocabulary. So, if you say decline in one sentence, why don't you say decrease in the next one, and then fall in the next one? Show that you have this range of vocabulary. Now, often you will be talking about the past, so let's make sure we understand the past forms of these useful verbs. So, decrease would be decreased, fall would be fell is an irregular verb, decline would be declined, drop would be dropped with a double P, reduce would be reduced and go down becomes went down. So, what about this? What about an upward trend? So, imagine for example, we've got 1990 at 115 US dollars, and then we've got the year 2000 at 120 dollars. So, this time, the price increases by 5 US dollars. Well, we could say something like, between 1990 and 2000, the price of petrol increased. Between 1990 and 2000, the price of petrol increased by 5 US dollars. Between 1990 and 2000, the price of petrol rose. Between 1990 and 2000, the price of petrol rose from 115 to 120 US dollars. So, what are some verbs to remember when we're describing upward trends? So, we've got increase, we've got rise, we've got climb, we've got go up, and we've got jump up or shoot up if we see a very quick increase. So, what about the past forms? Increase becomes increased, rise irregular becomes rose, climb climbed, go up becomes went up, and then we've got jumped up and shot up in the past. So, it's important to understand the past forms because often the data is from the past. We've looked at downwards trends, we've looked at the upward trend, but what happens if we see a steady trend, something a bit like this? So, in 1990, it's 115 dollars for petrol, and in 2000, it's still 115 dollars for petrol. Between 1990 and 2000, the price of petrol stayed the same. Between 1990 and 2000, the price of petrol remained at 115 US dollars. Now, we've noticed we've got remained at. It's important to get the prepositions correct. Between 1990 and 2000, the price of petrol leveled out at 115 US dollars. So, a useful phrasal verb, leveled out. Between 1990 and 2000, the price of petrol plateaued, a very useful advanced word to use in academic task one. Which verbs do we need to remember? We need to remember stay the same, plateau, level out, stay constant, and remain or remain steady, and then add the number. Remember, guys, there will be a PDF for this lesson with all of the useful vocabulary. So, I suggest you watch this video and then you review the PDF. Next, we've got a fluctuating trend. Let me explain what that is. Imagine you get a trend that kind of goes down, then it goes back up, then it goes back down, then it goes back up, and then down and up. You could say something like, between 1980 and 2010, the price of petrol fluctuated. Fluctuated means it goes up and down and up and down. Great vocabulary. Now, what about if we want to describe the high and low points of this line graph? Well, where is the high point? I'd say it's around here in 1990. We can see it's what, just above 115 US dollars. How could we communicate this? How can we show to the examiner that we understand this feature of the graphic? We could say, in 1990, the price of petrol reached its peak. Or, in 1990, the price of petrol reached its highest point. Now, likewise, if we look at 2005, we see that the petrol price is below 110, it's at the lowest. So, in 2005, the price of petrol reached its lowest point. In 2005, the price of petrol reached its lowest level. Great vocabulary there. Now, the tricky thing about IELTS is you're not only describing one line graph or one data set at a time. We often have more than one trend. So, let's do that. Imagine for example, this green line here is the price of petrol in the USA. But imagine we have a second data point, which is the price of petrol in the UK, and imagine if that looks a bit like this. What is some useful vocabulary that we can use to analyze and contrast this data? First of all, let's look at the difference between 1980 and 1995. From 1980 to 1995, petrol in the UK was cheaper than in the USA. Now, in contrast, from 1995 to 2010, petrol in the UK was more expensive. So, these are comparative phrases. Comparative phrases are great for boosting your score in academic task one. What about now, if we look at 1980, we could say in 1980, petrol in the UK was the cheapest.
[7:49]So, now we've got a superlative, and I'll tell you a bit more about that in a second. But let's now look at 2010. In 2010, petrol in the UK was the most expensive. So, if we've got comparatives, and if the adjective, for example, in the first two sentences, if the adjective has one syllable, so cheap, one syllable, then we're just going to add ER. So, was cheaper. Cheap, one syllable, cheaper. If we have two or more syllables, then we add more or less and then the adjective. So, expensive, expensive, three syllables, so we're not going to say expensive, that just sounds awkward. We're going to say was more expensive. Now, the same rules apply with superlatives. So, we can see superlatives in the bottom two sentences. If we've got one syllable, instead of adding ER, we add EST. Cheap, one syllable, so in 1980, petrol in the UK was the cheapest. Now, if we've got two or more syllables, then we're going to add most or least and then the adjective. So, in 2010, petrol in the UK was the most expensive. Now, in 1995, something interesting happens. In 1995, the price of petrol in the UK was the same as in the USA. Great phrase, was the same as in the USA. Now, what about in 2000? In 2000, the price of petrol in the UK surpassed the price of petrol in the USA. So, surpassed, it's more. In 2000, the price of petrol in the UK exceeded the price of petrol in the USA. So, we've got this useful vocabulary, these useful verbs for describing when one data is higher than the other data. So, we've got these verbs to remember, we've got surpass, overtake, and exceed. Now, I want to show you between 1985 and 1990, something interesting happens. Look at the two trends. Between 1985 and 1990, the price of petrol in the USA and UK increased at roughly the same rate. This is the kind of sentence that can take you from band 6 to band 8 or 9. Increased at roughly the same rate. And then what about in 1990? We also see an interesting trend where they seem to kind of come together. Do you know the vocabulary to describe this? Well, I'll teach you. In 1990, the price of petrol in the USA and UK began to converge. They came together. In contrast, if we look at the year 2000, we can say, in the year 2000, the price of petrol in the USA and UK began to diverge, they move away from each other. So, some verbs to remember, converge and diverge, if you really want to impress your examiner. So, now we've covered all of the verbs for describing trends. Let's move on to adjectives and adverbs for describing trends. Here's some useful vocabulary: adjective plus trend. So, let's take our line graph again and we've we're going to put in our information from the UK. And we can see that in general, we've got a kind of trend that goes up. So, let's say that, overall, there was a something trend in the price of petrol in the UK over the period. Now, I would use this word, upward trend. Great vocabulary here. Overall, there was an upward trend in the price of petrol in the UK over the period. So, what about the opposite? And so, if we look at the USA now, we can see that between 1980 and 2010, we've got this slight kind of downwards gradient. So, we could say, overall, there was a something trend in the price of petrol in the USA over the period. There was a downward trend. Now, you'll notice that the trend actually kind of fluctuates, it goes down, then up, then down, then up. But if you say, over the period, then you can describe what happens from the beginning of the period until the end, and that is a downward trend. Now, the most useful use of adjectives and adverbs is when we describe the extent of something. So, we want to have adjectives that describe a small change, like minimal, marginal, slight or small. We could have adjectives that describe medium change, like moderate. Or we could have adjectives that describe a large change, like considerable, large, noticeable, significant, substantial, great, steep or sizeable. Let me see if you can identify which adjective would be most appropriate for this trend. Between 1990 and 2000, there was a something decrease in the price of petrol. There was a, which group would you choose? I would choose this group. There was a minimal, a marginal, a slight or a small change. Now, what happens if we had a trend like this? Well, between 1990 and 2000, there was a moderate decrease in the price of petrol. And then a trend like this? Between 1990 and 2000, there was a considerable decrease in the price of petrol. A large decrease in the price of petrol. You could choose any of these adjectives. So, let's take this same trend that we just looked at, but let's change the sentence structure slightly. The price of petrol in the USA decreased something between 1990 and 2000. Which words would you choose? Well, you'd probably choose these, but decreased minimal, decreased marginal, decreased slight. It doesn't sound right. That's because at this stage, we need an adverb. So, how do we change these into adverbs? Well, we add LY. So, decreased minimally, decreased marginally, decreased slightly, decreased small, no. Decreased to a small extent. We don't add LY to small. We say to a small extent. And then what happens if we have a trend like this? Well, we know it's a large trend, so we could say decreased considerably, or decreased largely. Again, we don't say largely, we use the same rule as small, decreased to a large extent. So, now we've covered the adjectives and adverbs for describing trends. We're going to move on to describing periods of time. Now, in your answers, you're often going to want to talk about what happens at this point. At the beginning of the period. We could say, at the beginning of the period, the price of petrol was 115 US dollars. Or, the price of petrol started off at 115 US dollars. Similarly, we often want to describe what happens at this point in 2010. At the end of the period, the price of petrol was around 112 US dollars. Or, the price of petrol finished off at around 115 US dollars. Now, very often you're going to want to take 1980 and 2010, and you're going to want to describe what happens overall. You're often going to want to do this in your overview. Here's some really useful vocabulary for you. Over the period, the price of petrol experienced a downward trend. So, over the period is a great phrase to use when you're describing your overview because it's best when describing the trends or overall progression of the data or of the trend. But we have other phrases as well. We could say, throughout the period. Throughout the period, the price of petrol fluctuated. It went up and down and up and down. So, throughout the period would be best when we're describing something that happens continuously. So, at this stage, between 1980, it goes up and down and up and down and up and down, throughout the period, the price fluctuates. We could also use during the period. During the period, the price of petrol reached a high of 116 US dollars and a low of 109 US dollars. So, we're going to use during the period when we're talking about events that happen at specific times within the period. This might take a little bit of getting used to, so pay attention to how you use over the period, throughout the period, and during the period when you're writing your practice answers before your exam. Another way to talk about time is to look at chunks of time. So, let's look at this one first, 1980 to 1985. How about, in the first half of the 1980s, the price of petrol decreased? So, this is something the examiner would expect to see. At band 6 level, you'd see something like in 1980 to 1985. But at band 7 and above level, you'd see phrases like in the first half of the 1980s. It's a more advanced way of saying exactly the same thing. And then what about this? Well, in the latter half of the 1980s, the price of petrol increased. And then what about this, then? It's not half, it's half of a half, which is a quarter. In the first quarter of the 1980s, the price of petrol decreased. And this, in the final quarter of the 1980s, the price of petrol decreased. What about when we have specific years? The price of petrol reached its lowest point in 2005. Now, it's important to get prepositions correct. Notice we say in, and then a month and a year, so in January in 2005. We use on when we're talking about a day, so on Monday, on Wednesday. And we use at when we're talking about a time of day, so at 6 o'clock, at 3 o'clock. Get your prepositions correct. Okay, let's look at 1995, and then let's also look at 2005 and think about what happens in this period. In 1995, the price of petrol was around 112 US dollars. A decade later, the price fell to below 110 US dollars. What is decade? Well, a decade is 10 years, 1995 to 2005, that is 10 years. Decade is great vocabulary for academic task one, and you'll be surprised at how often you can see data in chunks of 10 years. So, you can use that word decade and impress your examiner. So, wow, we've covered the describing trends, we've covered the adjectives and adverbs for describing trends, and we've described periods of time. Let's move on to describing fractions. Now, to help us with that, we're going to make a table. So, we're going to have different items here. We're going to have the price in 2010, we're going to have the price in 2015, and then we're going to show what is that percentage change in price. So, let's start with peanut butter, my favorite. The price of peanut butter something between 2010 and 2015. Okay, let's look at the table. In 2010, the price was 1.50, in 2015, the price was 3 pounds, so the price of peanut butter has doubled between 2010 and 2015. Or, there was a something increase in the price of peanut butter between 2010 and 2015. There was a two-fold increase. So, two-fold increase or doubled, these are synonym phrases. What about avocados? What happened to the price of avocados? Well, the price of avocados increased by something between 2010 and 2015. So, from 1 pound to 1.34, that's a 34% increase. The price of avocados increased by around 1/3 between 2010 and 2015. Around 1/3. We're not just saying 1/3, it's around 1/3. These are the small words that help us get a higher score. We could say things like around 1/3, roughly 1/3, approximately 1/3. And then we take milk. The price of milk something between 2010 and 2015. So, from 50p to 1.50, the price of milk trebled or tripled, both are fine. Which means it's gone up three times. And during what we said doubled and two-fold increase, we can do the same here. There was a three-fold increase in the price of milk between 2010 and 2015. Now, let's look at butter. The price of butter decreased by something between 2010 and 2015. So, 1 pound to 75p, it's 25% decrease. The price of butter decreased by a quarter between 2010 and 2015. Apples. The price of apples between 2010 and 2015. So, they've gone from 1 pound to 50p. They've decreased by 50%. They've halved. Or the price of apples in 2015 was half the price that it was in 2010. If you're using the adjective, you'd use an F. And if you're using the verb, you'd use a V. So, halved or half. What about bananas? Well, the price of a banana, so from 50p to 2 pounds, quadrupled between 2010 and 2015. So, 50p to 2 pounds is a four-fold increase, there's the answer for the next one. Finally, let's look at toilet paper. The price of toilet paper increased by, so 10% is the same as saying 1/10. So, from 1 pound to 1.10, that's 1/10. Now, here's a slightly more confusing sentence. The something of products increased in price between 2010 and 2015. Now, I want to refer to these four items. And this is something I might want to say in my overview at the beginning. I can say, the majority of products increased in price between 2010 and 2015. Which means most of the products increased in price. In contrast, if I want to point out these items, I can say, a minority of products decreased in price between 2010 and 2015. Okay, now, this is a super comprehensive lesson with so much vocabulary. I would recommend that you watch it a few times, do the quizzes and also look at the PDF, and make sure you give yourself time before your actual exam to practice this vocabulary, because it takes a while to get used to using new vocabulary appropriately in the right context and accurately. So, best of luck with all of your studies and I'll see you in the next lesson.
