BAR CHART

I. COMPARISON
1. Expressing large differences
 much/far/a lot/considerably + adj/adv + er / more + adj/adv
e.g. Scientists have found that eating fish is considerably healthier than eating red meat.

2. Expressing small differences

 slightly/a bit/a little + adj/adv +er / more + adj/adv
e.g. The number of tourists coming to Hanoi this year is slightly lower that of last year.
 not quite as + adj/adv + as
e.g The graph shows that consumption of chocolate was not quite as high in 2012 as in 1992.
 nearly/almost as + adj/adv + as
e.g Coffee drinking was nearly as popular in 2011 as in 2010.

3. Quantifying differences
 a quarter, one-and-a-half-times, twice, three times, 30%, etc. + as much/many as
e.g A house in London may cost twice as much as a house in the north of England.
 three times, four times, 50%, etc. + more/greater than
e.g. Petrol prices in Western Europe are on average 40% higher than in North America.
 a quarter, one-and-a-half-times, double, three times, 30%, ect. + the number/amount of + as
e.g. The British import three times the amount of sugar as the Portuguese.
II. PRACTICE

Exercise 1: Rewrite these sentences using the words in brackets.

1. My brother eats slightly less food than I do. (quantity)

the quantity of food I eat is more than my brother
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My brother eats a slightly less quantity of food than I do
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2. Some people’s sleep patterns are not at all the same as mine. (different)

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3. There are nowhere near as many injuries among pedestrians now. (fewer)
There were much fewer injuries among pedestrians in the past.
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 4. A much greater number of people are choosing alternative medical treatment in my
country. (popular)
Alternative medical treatment is becoming much more popular in my country.
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5. Now that I’m seeing a physiotherapist, I don’t have nearly as much pain. (less)

Now that I'm seeing a physiotherapist, I have much less pain

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6. These days I eat much less red meat. (smaller quantity)

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7. These days, seeking medical treatment abroad is becoming much more popular.
(greater number)

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Model 1: The chart below shows the total number of minutes (in billions) of telephone calls in the UK,
divided into three categories, from 1995-2002.

The bar chart compares the amount of time spent by people in the UK on three different types of phone
call between 1995 and 2002.

It is clear that calls made via local, fixed lines were the most popular type, in terms of overall usage,
throughout the period shown. The lowest figures on the chart are for mobile calls, but this category also
saw the most dramatic increase in user minutes.

In 1995, people in the UK used fixed lines for a total of just over 70 billion minutes for local calls, and
about half of that amount of time for national or international calls. By contrast, mobile phones were
only used for around 4 billion minutes. Over the following four years, the figures for all three types of
phone call increased steadily.

By 1999, the amount of time spent on local calls using landlines had reached a peak at 90 billion
minutes. Subsequently, the figure for this category fell, but the rise in the other two types of phone call
continued. In 2002, the number of minutes of national / international landline calls passed 60 billion,
while the figure for mobiles rose to around 45 billion minutes.

(197 words, band 9 – IELTS Simon)

Exercise 2: The chart below shows information about the problems people have when they go to live
in other countries.
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Practice 2: The bar graph indicates sales figures for reading materials from 2002 to 2012. Write a
report to a university lecturer describing the information shown below.

Write at least 150 words. sales figues -> the number of books sold
reading materials -> different book genres / different types of
books
overview: sales of all categones increased except hobbies
books / history books were the best-sellers

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