Cambridge IELTS Book 17 Writing Task 1 Test 2
The chart below gives information about how families in one country spent their weekly income in 1968 and 2018. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
1968 and 2018: average weekly spending by families
The bar graph compares how the average family in a specific country allocated their weekly income in 1968 and 2018. Overall, there were significant changes in spending habits by 2018, with leisure and housing surpassing food as the largest expenditures.
In 1968, families spent the most on food, which accounted for 35% of their weekly income. By 2018, this figure had dropped by nearly half to around 17%. In 1968, no other category accounted for more than 10% of the family budget. However, in 2018, leisure and housing saw substantial increases, taking over as the biggest expenses, with around 22% and 19% of the weekly income, respectively.
Spending on transport also increased, reaching nearly 15% of weekly income, while household goods remained steady at around 7%. Conversely, spending on clothing and footwear, fuel and power, and personal goods all decreased, each accounting for no more than 5% of weekly income. (164 Words)
How to Paraphrase the Introductory Text
- The bar graph presents data on how the average family in one particular country spent their weekly income in 1968 and 2018.
The title of the bar graph says “average weekly spending by families”. This means the figures in the graph are averages. They added up the expenditures in the various categories and divided the totals by the number of weeks and the number of families. Therefore, in our paraphrase, we can use “the average family”, which refers to per-family numbers.
Here’s another example.
- The average American generates about 19 tons of carbon dioxide a year. The New York Times
The number is the total CO2 produced by that country, divided by the number of people in that country. It is a per-person number for the country.