The graph below gives information about U.S. government spending on research between
1980 and 2008.
Sample Answer
The line graph provides information about the U.S government’s expenditure on research in five fields
(Health, Space, Energy, General Science and Other) over the period from 1980 to 2008.
It can be clearly seen that the US government spent the largest amount of money on research into
Health while the least amount of money was spent on researching General Science.
Starting at $10 billion in 1980, the government expenditure on research into Health slightly dropped
over the next four years before continually rising again to a peak of nearly $25 billion in 2004. Despite
declining back down to approximately $18 billion in 2008, expenditure on Health research was by far
the highest. The amount of money spent on researching General Science however was the lowest of
all research categories, beginning at $2.5 billion in 1980 and rising to just over $5 billion by 2008.
Meanwhile, there was also an increase in the money that was spent on research into Energy and
Space, from approximately $5 billion and $6 billion in 1980 to around $7.5 billion and $9 billion in
2008, respectively. In contrast, the only field that experienced an overall decrease in expenditure was
that of research into other areas, which fell from approximately $7.5 billion in 1980 to about $5 billion
by 2008.
