Trends, graphs and figures Trends Read the text and then study the bullet points below. tie chart stows the US stock masket (Dow Jones Indes) or ast year and thetist quater otis yar {As can be seen from the chart, last year started on a postive note, The market rowe unt late Febriary when it almost reached the 11,000 level, But interest rates were ring, and investors decided to take pratt, There wos a sharp fall during the month of March and the Dow bottomed oat at just over 10,00, A shat pont investors started buying. again ~ strong economic numbers and global liqudty (central banks printing tmoney) oflered support to the marke, Over the aummer the Dow was iat teading in range fom 10,400 to 10700, The market was unable to Break ou ofthis range, even though company profits were increasing ‘What was the reason? Iwas almost entirely de fo the price ofl, which had climbed dramatically from $424 barre at the start ofthe year 068 in August. Ths price_| rise was caused by the hurricane season in the Gulf of | Merico and increasing tension Inthe Middle East. | Tn mid-October the markets started to rally | strongly, and sent frog 10.200 to 10,900 over jst four ‘weeks, This sudden jump was as a result of comments tase by a member of the Federal Reserve, who Indicated that interes rates would soon stop Hsing This Is positive for business aa the cost of borrowing. | also stops going up. From November to banwary the ‘market remained more or less unchanged, failing to breakthrough the February highs, (ver the las few months the market has advanced agsin. ‘The economic backtrop remains healthy ompany profs tye good, consumer spending la up, fd Interest rates are close to reaching & peak, The only dar cloud i the pre of el which hae raen back to the $70 level and looks certain to g0 up further The next hurricane season is approaching an prodictlon srrldwide cannot be significantly expanded. © In any text describing tsends there will be verbs and nouns of movement. Examples in this text are fill, oftom out be flat, increase, etc © The mind map oppostte fists verbs of movement, Note that words clescribing the same type of movement are often used in different contexts, For example, share prices ‘rally’ whereas profits or economies ‘grow’. Use a _g00d dictionary to check on points of usage such as this © Note the use of veri tenses in the text: reached, were rising, had climbed, has risen, etc. There is a summary of ‘verb forms and uses in the mind map oppose © Atoxt describing trends will Include many examples of linking words. (See units 20-22.) Examples here are even though, due to, asa result of and as (meaning, because’). ‘Transitive and intransitive verbs ‘Wher using verbs of movernent it is important to know whether they are: © Transitive — needing an object ~ showin in the dictionary witha’. 6 Intransitive used without an objee dictionary with an. So the following verbs are transitive and need an object (the budget): Wie cut / lowered raised | reduced the budget But these examples are wrong (no object The budget eutLloweretasised Leelee, ‘The following verbs are intransitive and are used without an abject Costs went oun / fell declined | rose = shown in the ‘But these examples are wrong (there is an object): Ne went ie flbtaletined yee ots Many verbs like increase ard decrease can be used both with and without objects Adjectives and adverbs of movement In the text, some nouns are qualified with adjectives (sharp, studdea) and some verbs with adverbs (damattelly, significantly). Adjectives used to describe movement include: slow slight, gvedut, sty, quick, rapid, significant, shaep, substatiat, dramatic. ‘Adverbs are formed by adding -y co the adjective, and sometimes one of two other letters change as wel13 TRENDS, GRAPHS AND FIGURES Upmard go up, Increase, rise, raise, pit C7 Faisad, Rl, pick Op, grou, Expand, double, Shon an vgs trend Rapid upwards jump, rocket, soar, take off Donnmards go down, decrease, fall, drop, stip baths redace, lower, bring down (= lower), ct shrink, halve, shone & deamuard trend Rapid downward: plummet, collapse, crash, slump, Highs and lows: peak, reach « peaks bottom out, hit 4 low Vatetitty: Pactaste, be volatile Stability: stay the sane, be Sat, be Grelatively> unthenged level of / ont God and bad grove (> get better, Prangthen, resower tos, bask detericrate get worse), weaken Single points: be abowe / blow, stand at States: be ve / down rah, chart, bar chart, ste chart, table, dlagrane Title, rom / column Guth headings>, horizontal axis Clabeled with months, vertical axis CShowing the valuas for =? Curve, Solid tine, dotted Jina, dashed line, sequent, shaded area, slope Coteep oF shallow) / As can be sean from the chart, The gregh / My next slide shows oy Locking now wt the Figures for ‘the third quarter we €4n set Action in progress Presents sales are ri Hrongly at the movant Paste sales nore Htrongly last year A great deal more than, way over Somesshat wore than, wail over Tusk over, slightly more than Around, about, roughly, Sorsewhore ie tha iagen er elias Alwost, nearly, not quite, jwit short of Far tess than, nowhere near, nothing tke 45 much as From the present to the past: sales have cisen by 6% this year From the to earlier in the 3 ae ere ete ‘the market began to change Looking back at an action in progress Action in progress up to 4 point in the past: Sales had been rising strongly, but then new Competitors antered the market Action in progress wp to the presents sales have been Cising in all ow major marketsBrew. graphs and figures: Exerci: 13.1 Match each phrase on the left with its closest ‘synonym (same meaning) on the right. 1 drop by 50% 2) deteriorate 2 rise by 100% '} recover 3 get better 0 double 4 get worse 6) raise 5. bounce back e) expand 6 grow 4) lower 7 putup 9) halve 8 bring down hy improve 13.2 Match each verb on the left with its closest antenym (opposite meaning) on the right. 1 rise a) plummet 2 raise b) be flat 3 take off ©) bottom out 4 expand fall 5 fluctuate ®) lower 6 peak ) shrink 13.3 Complete each sentence with a phrasal verb from the box. ‘bounce back bottom out ick up put up bring down level off sia back — take off 1 If your prices are too high, you have to them 2 if your prices are too low, you have to them — 3 Hales teach their lowest level, they —___ 4 ‘If sales recover after a period of downward movement, they 5 If sales go up a litle after being flat for some time, they 6 If sales go up a lot after being flat for some time, they 7 If profits were going up ~ oF down ~ and then become stable, they — - If profits go down a little after a peried of growth, they & 13.4. Underline the correct words in i 1 The verbs “ise” and ‘grow’ are similar. However, rse / grow is more common for longer periods of time, and where there isa total increase in size (eg describing the economy) 2 The phrasal verb ‘grow up’ refers to the change from beeing a child to being an adult, It can also cannot be sed to refer to things ike profits, the economy. 3. The phrasal verb ‘fall down’ refers to mavement towards the ground, It can also / cannot be used to refer ta things like sles, profits 4 We can ‘raise /Iower' prices or ‘put up / bring down” prices. However, the first two examples / last two examples are slightly more formal, and can refer to @ change in the level ar standard of something as well as prices, 1.5 Puta tick (V) if the sentence is possible. Put a ross (X) if it is not. The answers depend on whether ‘the verb is transitive, intransitive or oth. 1 We cut costs by 5% 2 We fell casts by 5% 3 Profits cut by 5%. 4. Profits fell by 5% 5 We raised prices by 2% 1 6 7 8 We rose prices by 2% Inflation raised by 2%, Inflation rose by 2%. 9. We increased sales by 4%. 10 Sales increased by 4% i 11 We went up market share by 3%, i 12. Market share went up by 3% [ 13.6 The -ing form of many verbs can be use as an adjective, eg an increasing demand for ofl. Make adjectives from the verbs in the box using the information in brackets. expand grow rhe shrink soar 1 a shrinking _ budget (decreasing in size) 2 an —_____ business fncreasng in size) 3a problem (increasing over along period) 4 inflaton (increasing) 5 costs (eaching a very high lve) 13.7 Fillin the missing letters in these adverbs using the information in brackets. Sales increased 1 1@_0id ly (quickly) 2 gf ly (slowly and by small amounts) 3 st___iy (in a constant, regular way) 4 si y (afte) 5 mar hy tractonaly) 6 sig___¥ (in a large and noticeable way) 7 sh__y Guddenly and by a large ammount) 8 or lly (suddenly and surprisingly) Note that ‘dramatically’ can refer to both good and bad changes (unlike in many Latin fanguages)13.8 Puta tick (¥) if the sentence makes sense. Put a cross (X) if it does not. 1 Profits have risen steadily over recent yeas. 2 Sales plummeted marginatly in July. [_] 3. The price of oll soared gradually last year. [_] 4 5 Share prices dropped back sightly last week. [—] Unemployment numbers levelled out sharaly. [_ 13.9 Write the nouns for these verbs. Sometimes the form is the same. 1 at — 6 improve 2 deteriorate —___ 7 increase 3 fal 8 recover 4 gow 9 reduce _ we 5 hake 10 tise ___ £ 13.10 Rewrite the ‘verb + adverb’ sentences as ‘adjective + noun’ sentences. 1 Sales fel slighty There was a __slight fall_ im sales. 2 Profits rose steadily We saw a in profits 3. The economy improved gradually ‘There was. a in the econarny 4 We need to reduce costs sharply. We need to see a = in costs, 13.11 Underline the correct words. 1 lke you to look at the blue segment on this next bar chart / pie chart. 2 I'd ke to draw your attention to the heading / ttle at the top of each column of this table, 3 I'm sory, the heading / ate of this next slide is off the screen, but at east you can see the graph 4 The horizontal axis is marked with / labeled with the months of the year 5 Sales growth has been very rapid — as you can see from the steep / shallow slope of this graph © Prepare two graphs. They could be about your company (sales, profits, costs, etc) oF your country {inflation unemployment, house prices, etc), You could take graphs | from an article on the internet oy in print, in English or in || your own language. Remember to label the two axes | © Speaking practice 1. Tella partner about the graphs. Your | partner shoul ask for more information (eg ‘I'm sorry, can you explain that again?" ‘What were the reasons for that?” 13 TRENDS, GRAPHS AND FIGURES 13.12 fis very common to use approximate figures — particularly in speech. Match each approximate figure a)-p) to an exact figure 1-6 below. 2) just over 150 i) far less than 150 b) around 150 D way, way over 150 ©) Just short of 150k) nowhere near 150 @ rough 150 1) lightly more than 150 ) not quite 150 m)sornewhat more than 150 4) almost 150 1} 150 give or take a litte 4) some 150 0} somewhere in the regian of 150 150 oF so nothing ke as much as 150 1 90 2 146 3 154 ao 4 190 ial 5 240 q swowe FOOORO 13.13 Fill in the gaps with a preposition where necessary (in one case there is no preposition). Choose from: at, between, down, from, in, into, of, on, to, with. 1 ast year sales rose 7m €7.5m, So ‘thats an increase €0.5m. 2 Last year there was an increase —__ sales _ 8%. 3. Our market share now stands 28%. 4 One five (= one out of every five) of our Products never makes a profit. 5 Two milion advertising, 6 Unemployment figures have been relatively stable for some time, fluctuating __ 4.3% and. 4.6%. 7. There hasn't been much movernent the ‘unemployment figures for some time. 8 Sales rose line predictions 9 From January 1st to now, sales have gone up by €0.5m, So that's @ year -date increase of 8% 10 Over the last twelve months, sales have gone up by €0.5m. So that’s a year __-year increase of 8%, 11 In this pie chart, sales are broken __ by region 12. In this pie chart, the whale county is divided five regions. ‘euros were spent on television © Speaking practice 2. Regroup and work with a new partner ~ you are going to repeat the exercise and explain the graphs again, This time speak slowly and focus on accuracy rather than fluency, Take @ moment to review pages 56-57 before you begin, ‘© Wiiting practice. Write @ short report based on the twa ‘graphs,