Pick out the main features of this bar chart for your overview, write your report on a 20-minute timer, then compare it with a band-8 model answer.
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The chart below shows the percentage of household waste recycled, by material, in three cities in 2022.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
| Category | Zurich | Madrid | Cairo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper | 82% | 55% | 20% |
| Glass | 90% | 60% | 12% |
| Plastic | 45% | 22% | 6% |
| Metal | 70% | 41% | 35% |
| Food waste | 40% | 8% | 2% |
GoPrep wrote this practice question in the style of the exam. It is not an official IELTS question.
An overview names the main trends or differences in one or two sentences, without numbers. These are the features a strong answer picks out:
Spend the first few minutes planning, then write.
0 words of 150 minimum
Your answer stays on this page only. Copy it before you leave.
Write your own answer first, then compare: how it answers the exact question, what each paragraph does, and which phrases you could borrow.
The bar chart compares the percentage of household waste recycled, by material, in Zurich, Madrid and Cairo in 2022.
Overall, Zurich recycled the highest percentage of every material, while Cairo recycled the lowest percentage of every material. Glass and paper were generally recycled more than plastic and food waste.
Zurich's rates were impressive: 90% of its glass and 82% of its paper were recycled, along with 70% of metal. Plastic and food waste were lower, at 45% and 40% respectively, but still far above those of the other cities.
Madrid came second for all five materials. It recycled 60% of glass and 55% of paper, followed by 41% of metal and 22% of plastic. Its figure for food waste was just 8%, the lowest of its five categories, though still higher than Cairo's.
Cairo had the lowest recycling rates overall. Its highest rate was for metal, at 35%, which was close to Madrid's 41%. Paper stood at 20% and glass at only 12%. Cairo recycled 6% of its plastic and a mere 2% of its food waste, so Zurich's food waste rate was twenty times higher than Cairo's.
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| recycling rate | share of waste reused |
| household waste | rubbish from homes |
| far higher than | much greater than |
| the lowest figure | the smallest percentage |
| range from X to Y | vary between two figures |
| perform best | have the highest level |
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