Recent Writing Task 1 Test : 05/2023
The graph below gives information about the price of bananas in four countries between 1984 and 2004.
Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Sample Answer 1:
The line graph shows how much bananas cost in four different nations from 1994 to 2004.
Overall, banana prices in all countries experienced wild fluctuations, except for the USA, whose figure remained relatively stable for the majority of the period. Additionally, bananas were generally the most and least expensive in Japan and the USA, respectively.
Regarding Japan, the cost of a kilogram of bananas started at nearly 2 US dollars, after which it had risen sharply to peak at around 2.8 by 1995. Despite an increase between 1997 and 1999, the banana price in Japan dropped to a low of just above 1.5 US dollars per kilogram before rebounding to end at 2.5. Bananas in the USA, meanwhile, were initially priced at about 0.7 US dollars. This was followed by a rise to approximately 1.1 one year later and a leveling off towards the end of the timeframe.
Turning to France, there was a period of stability in the price of bananas, remaining at roughly 1.7 US dollars per kilogram from 1994 to 1997. Thereafter, the figure fluctuated wildly, with it becoming the highest in the chart in 2001 (at $1.7) and the lowest in 2003 (at $1) prior to reaching just over 1.5 in 2004. The banana costs in Germany almost exactly mirrored this fluctuating trend, hovering around the 1.4 US dollar mark in the first seven years and then falling gradually to about 1.2 in 2004.
248 words – band 7+
Sample Answer 2:
The given line graph compares how much bananas cost in 4 different countries: Japan, France, Germany, and the USA from 1994 to 2004.
Overall, the prices of bananas were the highest in Japan and the lowest in America. Furthermore, except for the USA, bananas’ costs in all the countries fluctuated wildly over the ten-year period, with France and Germany following a relatively similar trend.
Regarding Japan, starting at $1.80/kg in 1994, the price hit a peak of $2.80 in the next year, before dropping to $2.0 in 1996. From this year onwards to 2000, bananas’ cost oscillated between $1.90 and $2.20 and hit a bottom of around $1.50 in 2001. This was followed by a rebound to $2.10 one year later, when the cost rose exponentially to $2.50 at the end of the period. The price of bananas in America remained stable at around $1.10 throughout the ten years after an increase from $0.70 in 1994.
Both France and Germany started at $1.60 and $1.40, respectively, but while France’s price stabilized until 1997, Germany’s cost saw a plunge to $1.20 in 1996. From 1997 to 2004, the two countries’ costs experienced dramatic fluctuations, especially in France, where the price was more expensive than Japan in 2001 at $1.60 and the lowest of all countries in 2003 at $1.00. However, in the end, bananas cost roughly the same as they did 10 years prior in both countries.
(237 words) – band 7+
