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 rice production in six countries in 1990 and 2020.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
| Category | 1990 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| China | 189 | 212 |
| India | 111 | 178 |
| Indonesia | 45 | 55 |
| Bangladesh | 26 | 55 |
| Vietnam | 19 | 43 |
| Thailand | 17 | 30 |
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
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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 rice production in six countries in 1990 and 2020, in millions of tonnes.
Overall, production rose in every country. China and India remained the two largest producers, but the fastest relative growth occurred in the smaller producers, especially Bangladesh and Vietnam.
China produced 189 million tonnes of rice in 1990 and 212 million in 2020, a relatively modest rise of 23 million tonnes. India's output grew far more, from 111 million tonnes to 178 million, an increase of 67 million, so the gap between the two giants narrowed considerably, from 78 million tonnes to just 34 million.
Among the smaller producers, Indonesia produced 45 million tonnes in 1990 and 55 million in 2020. Bangladesh's output more than doubled over the same period, from 26 million tonnes to 55 million, which put it level with Indonesia by 2020. Vietnam showed an even bigger relative rise, from 19 million tonnes to 43 million. Finally, Thailand's production increased from 17 million to 30 million tonnes, making it the smallest of the six producers at both dates.
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| rice production | amount of rice grown |
| leading producer | country producing the most |
| double | become twice as large |
| strong growth | a big increase |
| relative growth | growth in comparison with the start |
| account for | make up |
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