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Task 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

The chart below shows the changes in car ownership in Great Britain between 1961 and 2001.

Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make
comparisons where relevant.

You should write at least 150 words.

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Model Answer A

The line graph shows the variation in the percentage of households that owned no car, one car,
and two or more cars in Britain during a 40-year period from 1961 to 2001.

As can be seen from the chart, the car was a much less popular household item in the 1960s than
it is today. Nearly 65% of British families did not have a car of their own in 1961, about one third
had only one car, and no families owned two or more cars.

The next 20 years, however, saw a significant increase in car ownership. In 1981, 15% of British
families owned two or more cars, while the percentage of families with one car reached a peak of
50%. During the same period, the percentage of households with no car decreased sharply to
approximately 35%.

From 1981 to 2001, an increasing number of families purchased an additional car, pushing the
percentage of households with two or more cars to a record high of nearly 30%. Families with
only one car were still the majority, but their percentage had dropped slightly to about 43$ by
2001. The percentage of families without a car, not surprisingly, kept decreasing to less than 30%
at the end of the 40-year period.

(209 words)