Describing graphs

Listen to the introduction to the topic and then move on to the tasks.

After you complete this part of the lesson you will know how to talk about visual representations of statistics and you will be able to describe trends using combinations of verbs, nouns, adverbs and adjectives. Additionally, you will also practise prepositions here.

You will start with the verbs which express different types of movements: upward, downward or no change. It is important for you to familiarise yourself with this vocabulary and know if the following verbs are regular or irregular as you may need to describe past trends. Obviously, you can check the forms in a dictionary and, please, check the pronunciation as well. After you finish working on the verbs, you will move on to other parts of speech.

Now, download the PDF and match the verbs with the movements. All the verbs in this exercise are given in their basic form, i.e. infinitive.

If you want to decribe trends in a more advanced way, you need to be able to use both verbs and nouns. The exercise below focuses on the verbs and the nouns that are related to them. Be careful, it often happens that the same word can be used as a verb or a noun, e.g. increase. This word is a verb: to increase (full infinitive) but at the same time it can be used as a noun: an increase. In case of many other verbs you need to play with word building, for instance to grow (verb) but a growth (noun). You can always check the words in a dictionary. And, one more thing here: not all the verbs have their corresponding nouns.

The following presentation shows you how to use the verbs and the nouns you have practised in two different types of sentences. So, watch the presentation and note two types of sentences there. One that goes with a verb, e.g. The prices fell (past form of the verb “fall”) and the other one that uses a noun: There was a fall in prices. You can use both ways to talk about movement. The examples given in the presentation use Past Simple tense, but remember that you may use other tenses here and then you will have to change verb forms accordingly.

Now, change the structures of the sentences based on the information from the presentation above.

It is time for you to move on to the other parts of speech that will enable you to describe movements in a more precise way. In order to do so, you need to be familiar with a bunch od adjectives and adverbs that specify movement. Remember that adjectives go with nouns ( a sharp growth) and adverbs go with verbs (grow sharply). You will also practise here the structures you have already studied.

Now you will move on to prepositions (short words such as: at, from, by etc.). This is another part of speech that is necessary when we describe graphs and more specifically when we talk about time and numbers. The exercise below (the PDF attached) is supposed to give you some examples of prepositions used in sentences that describe changes in sales. Focus on the missing words but after you finish this exercise study all the examples of prepositions you find there.

Finally, fill in the gaps below with missing prepositions.

To summarise this part I would like you to do the exercises from the presentation below.