UNIT 5

READING GRAPHS/CHARTS AND TABLES

Objectives:
By the end of the unit, you are expected to be able to:
1. Identify common words/expressions used in graphs, charts and tables.
2. Understand information presented in graphs, charts and tables
3. Use common words used in graphs, charts and tables to complete texts
describing graphs, charts and tables.

It is common that a text is sometimes accompanied by a graph, chart, or

table to facilitate the reader’s understanding of information being presented.
The picture provided by a graph can enable us to see information more quickly
than having to read a table of data. But you need to know how to read a graph,
and how to find out what it is about. Therefore, it is necessary for the reader to
be familiar with common words/expressions related to graphs, charts, and
tables.

A. COMMON VOCABULARY ABOUT GRAPHS AND TABLES:

 show, present, indicate, represent
 vertical line (axis), horizontal line, solid line, broken line, dotted line
 column, row, bar, title, subtitle

B. COMMON VOCABULARY ABOUT TRENDS IN GRAPHS AND

TABLES:
 Upward Trends ( )
Verbs: to increase, to rise, to jump, to climb, to go up
Nouns: increase, rise, jump
 Downward Trends ( )
Verbs: to decrease, to fall, to drop, to decline, to go down
Nouns: decrease, fall, drop, decline
 Stable Trends ( )
Verbs: to level out, to remain steady/the same, not change
Nouns: leveling out, no change
 Prepositions: from ... to ..., by, at
For example: The price rose from $50 to $75.
The price increases by 50%
The price stood at $50.

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Example
Look at the different types of graphs, their parts and the description below
Line Graph Broken line
Vertical axis
Revenue
Bar graph 900
800
Revenue 700
900 600 Solid line
800 500 Dotted line
700 400
600 Bar 300
500 200
400 100
300 0
200 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
100
0 Property Horizontal axis
Retail
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Investment & others
Property Retail Investment & others

Table Pie Chart

Revenue
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Revenue in 2007
Property 225 215 760 780 200 Retail
Retail 50 40 80 140 170
Investment
Investment 10 5 30 50 60
& others
& others

Rows
Columns
Property

Both graphs (bar and line), the table, and the pie chart present the same
information, all about revenue of three economic activities (property, retail and
investment & others).
Over the years (2004 – 2008) in general the revenues of the three
business activities increased after a small drop in 2005, with the exception of
the property revenue which fell sharply in 2008.
After the small decline in 2005, the revenue of the property sector in
2006 rose considerably nearly three times as much as the previous year. Despite
the sharp fall in revenue in 2008, the property business remained highest in
revenue.

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Exercise 1
Answer each question based on the line graph below.

Financial Performance
600
500
$ million

400
300
200
100
0
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
___ Profit before income tax
_ _ Profit after income tax but before minority interest
….. Profit attributable to equity holders of the Company

1. What is the title of the line graph?

2. What do the vertical and horizontals axis represent?
3. All profits rose sharply in 2005 (True or False).
4. In what year was the biggest increase for all profits?
5. What happened to all profits in 2008?
6. Which profit was always the highest of all?
7. How much was the profit before income tax in 2008?
8. Which profit was always the lowest?
9. Complete this following short description of the line graph with ONE
WORD per blank space.
The graph ____ that in general all profits ____ up until 2007, but
____ greatly in 2008. In 2006 the _____ of profit was higher than that of
the year before. The profits reached their peaks in ____.
Although all profits had similar ___from 2004 to 2008, the profit
before income tax was always the ____, whereas the profit attributable
to equity holders of the company was ____.

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Exercise 2

Read the graph above and answer these questions.

1. What does the graph show?
2. What does the bar represent?
3. What does the line/curve represent?
4. In what country do people live the longest?
5. Which country has the lowest life expectancy?
6. How much is the largest spending on health care? In what country is
it?
7. Which country has the least spending on health care? How much is it
approximately?
8. Which country has the second largest expenditure on health care?
9. Which country has the second longest life expectancy?
10. From the graph can we conclude that if a country spends more on
health care, it will have a higher life expectancy?

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Exercise 3
Read the following pie chart and complete the text describing it with the words
provided on the right.

A. 1980
B. oil
C. 5
D. 75%
E. nuclear power
F. to
G. coal
H. hydro power
I. 20%
J. rising

The charts compare the sources of electricity in Australia and France in the 1980
and 2000. Between these years, electricity production almost doubled, (1) _____
from 100 units to 170 in Australia, and from 90 (2) _____ 180 units in France.
In 1980 Australia used (3) _____ as the main electricity source (50 units)
and the remainder was produced from natural gas, (4) _____ (each producing 20
units) and oil (which produced only 10 units). By 2000, coal had become the
fuel more than 75% of electricity produced and only hydro continued to be
another significant source supplying approximately (5) _____.
In contrast, France used coal a source for only 25 units of electricity in
(6) _____, which was matched by natural gas. The remaining 40 units were

produced largely from (7) _____ and nuclear power, with hydro contributing
only (8) _____ units. However, by 2000 nuclear power, which was not used at all
in Australia, had developed into the main source, producing almost (9) _____ of
electricity, at 126 units, while coal and oil together produced only 50 units.
Other sources were no longer significant.
Overall, it is clear that by 2000 these two countries relied on different
principal fuel source: Australia relied on coal and France on (10) _____.

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Exercise 5
Read the table and answer the questions based on it

1. Which country spent the most on leisure/education?

2. The largest consumption in Turkey was for food/drinks/tobacco in 2002
(T/F).
3. In all countries what consumption category had the least expenditure?
4. The most important expenditure was on clothing/footwear in all countries
(T/F).
5. Which country has the smallest percentage of spending on
education/leisure?
6. Of all the countries, Ireland is the country ranked second in the
expenditure on food/drink/tobacco (T/F).
7. Clothing/footwear category is always the second largest in the three
spending categories for each country (T/F).
8. It can be said that leisure/education is the least important all countries
(T/F).
9. Which country had the largest expenditure on clothing/footwear?
10. Which country has more than doubled consumption of Sweden on
food/drinks/tobacco?

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Exercise 6
Read the bar graph below and complete the text based on it

Primary & secondary schools with internet access (%) 1991 - 1999
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

Primary Secondary

The bar chart (1) _______ the number of primary and

secondary schools with access to the internet between 1991
and 1999 in New Zealand. The horizontal axis (2) _______ A. rose
years and the vertical is percentage. B. 6%
In 1991 the percentage of primary and secondary C. represents
schools with the internet access were (3) _______ and 12 % D. illustrates
respectively. After a year, the number of secondary schools E. doubled
suddenly (4) _______, and after another year it (5) _______ F. slightly
almost twice again to reach a total of 45%. G. went up
During the same period, the primary schools with H. sharply
the internet access increased (6) _______. However, the I. to
internet use (7) _______ dramatically in the next few years to J. 98%
nearly 90%, while in the secondary schools continued to rise K. increased
(8) _______ to over 90%.

From 1997 (9) _______ 1999, the percentage of

primary and secondary schools accessing the internet
climbed slightly, peaking at 90% and (10) _______
respectively.
To conclude, the internet access in both schools (11)
_______ dramatically between 1991 and 1999.

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