作者建议:
This IELTS task 1 example
is quite difficult because it presents the student
with a lot of data, and because the significant trends
in the data are not overly obvious. Let's have a look
at how we might go about organising the information
in the tables into a task 1 answer.
1. First, we need to be aware of all of the variables
that make up the data: the scores (percentage averages),
the school subjects, the age groups and the gender
or sex.
2. Now we need to sort the information into some sort
of sense:a.) The first thing to do with any table
is to find the highest and lowest numbers. Looking
at these tables we can see that boys tended to score
highly in sport and lowly in languages, and that girls
on the other hand tended to score highly in languages
and lowly in sport. This is the first and most obvious
significant feature of the tables - the boys' strong
subject is the girls' weak subject and vice versa.b.)
But a comparison of subject scores between the two
sexes reveals only limited significance. We can see
that for most of the subjects the boys and girls got
similar scores. Boys scored slightly higher in geography,
but by the age of 15 the scores were the same. So,
all that we can say about the charts in terms of the
differences between boys and girls by subject is that,
besides sport and languages, they were negligible
(not important).c.) The next logical step then, is
to look closely at the scores for the different age
groups. When we do this we find that some interesting
patterns emerge. For all of the subjects, except the
weak subject for each sex (languages and sports),
the scores, between the ages of 7 and 15, increased
overall, for both sexes. But if we look at the scores
for the years between these two we see that the improvement
was not constant, and that at a particular age the
scores for most subjects fell. Also, the age at which
this occurred was not the same for boys and girls.
This pattern seems to reveal that both boys and girls
went through a slump in academic performance, but
at different times, which is certainly an interesting
feature of the data in the tables, and definitely
needs to be mentioned. The largest difference between
scores for two different age groups ( Languages -
10%; 65-75% 13-15yrs) should also be noticed.
3. The next thing to do is to take our analysis of
the data and make a plan for our report. A plan for
these tables might look like this:a.) Introductory
sentence- table shows: percentage scores for school
subjects (list), different ages (list), different
sexes.b.) Highest and lowest subjects for boys/girls-
sport/languages- oppositesc.) Other subjects very
similar- subjects by sex not too significantd.) More
significant- age groups- all subjects increased (overall)-
except for slumps(list subject figures)- different
ages for boys/girls- 13-15/ 11-13e.) Concluding sentence-
boys performed better in sport, girls languages- both
sexes experienced performance slump but at different
ages.
4. After a plan has been
made, we can write the report incorporating the facts
and figures from the charts. Look at how this has
been done below. Keep in mind that the answer below
is quite extensive, and that often because of time
answers will not be as detailed as this. In those
cases the least significant information should be
discarded. In this case the least significant information
is that about boys being slightly higher in Geography,
and the part about the greatest difference between
two particular age groups.Notice the way data has
been incorporated below. The prepositions and other
useful terms are in italics.
Task 1写作示范: The tables
show averaged percentage scores achieved in the school
subjects of Maths, Science, Geography, Languages and
Sport by children aged 7, 10, 13, and 15 according
to sex.
The subjects for which
the highest average scores were recorded were Sport,at
78% (boys), and Languages,at 75% (girls). The strongest
subject for each sex was revealed to be the weakest
for the opposite sex, with these two subjects also
comprising the lowest recorded scores,at 60% and 70%
respectively.
Apart from these two
subjects the performance of boys and girls was comparatively
similar. Boys tended to score higher in Geography,
with scores ranging from 63% to 70%, while scores
for girls ranged between 62% and 64%. However, it
is significant that at the age of 15 both boys and
girls alike averaged a score of 64% for this subject.
The differences between the sexes for scores for Maths
and Science were negligible.
It is more interesting
to observe the patterns that emerge when the data
is examined in terms of age groups. In general, for
both boys and girls, children tended to improve as
they got older. For boys, between the ages of 7 and
15, improvement can be observed in these ranges of
scores: Maths (63-67%), Science (70-73%), Geography
(63-64%), and Sport (71-78%). For girls, it can be
observed in these score ranges: Maths (64-68%), Science
(69-72%), Geography (62-64%), and Languages (62-75%).
The increase in scores for girls for this last subject,
Languages, was the greatest overall improvement across
the different age groups, and its rise from 65% to
75% also constituted the greatest margin between scores
for any two particular age groups.
The exceptions to the
general trend were Languages, in which scores for
boys steadily declined from 62% at 7 years to 58%
at 15 years, and Sport, in which scores for girls
steadily declined from 65% to 60%. The other significant
exceptions that emerged were that both boys and girls
recorded a slump between particular ages. For girls
this happened between the ages of 10 and 13, when
scores in Maths fell by 1%, Science 2%, and Geography,
Languages and Sport by 2%. For boys the ages at which
this occurred were 13 to 15, when Maths and Languages
both fell by 2%, Science 1% and Geography by 6%. Boys'
scores for sport actually increased by 3% during this
period.
To sum up, these tables
show that in this study, on average, males in this
age range performed better in Sport and females performed
better in Languages. The other significant pattern
that emerged from the data was that boys and girls
both went through a slump in performance, but that
this slump happened at different ages for the different
sexes.