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Line graph: Workforce employed in agriculture

Pick out the main features of this line graph for your overview, write your report on a 20-minute timer, then compare it with a band-8 model answer.

WRITING TASK 1

Line graph

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

The graph below shows the percentage of the workforce employed in agriculture in four countries from 1960 to 2010.

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

Write at least 150 words.

Workforce employed in agriculture
Line graph: Workforce employed in agriculture (%). The values are in the data table below.0%20%40%60%80%196019701980199020002010
  • Turkey
  • Poland
  • Italy
  • United Kingdom
Show data table
Workforce employed in agriculture
CategoryTurkeyPolandItalyUnited Kingdom
196075%45%32%4%
197067%38%20%3%
198058%30%14%3%
199046%27%9%2%
200036%19%6%2%
201025%13%4%1%

GoPrep wrote this practice question in the style of the exam. It is not an official IELTS question.

What your overview should say

An overview names the main trends or differences in one or two sentences, without numbers. These are the features a strong answer picks out:

  1. 1Overall, the share of workers in farming fell in every country, with the sharpest declines in the countries that began with the highest share.
  2. 2Turkey dropped from 75% to 25%, remaining the most agricultural country throughout, while Poland more than halved from 45% to 13%.
  3. 3Italy fell from 32% to 4%, and the UK stayed below 5% throughout, ending at just 1%.

Write it on the clock

Spend the first few minutes planning, then write.

20:00

0 words of 150 minimum

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Band-8 model answer

Write your own answer first, then compare: how it answers the exact question, what each paragraph does, and which phrases you could borrow.

Show model answer (198 words)

The line graph shows the percentage of the workforce employed in agriculture in Turkey, Poland, Italy and the United Kingdom between 1960 and 2010.

Overall, the share of farm workers fell in all four countries. The decline was greatest in Turkey, which nevertheless remained the most agricultural economy, while the United Kingdom stayed at a very low level throughout.

Turkey began at 75% in 1960, far above the other countries. This fell steadily to 58% in 1980 and 46% in 1990, then to 36% in 2000 and 25% in 2010, a 50-point drop. Poland followed a similar downward path from a lower base, declining from 45% to 38% in 1970, 30% in 1980 and 27% in 1990. It then fell to 19% in 2000 and 13% in 2010.

Italy experienced the fastest relative decline. Beginning at 32% in 1960, its share dropped to 20% in 1970 and 14% in 1980, and then reached single figures, with 9% in 1990, 6% in 2000 and only 4% in 2010. The United Kingdom had only 4% in 1960 and 3% in both 1970 and 1980. The share then edged down to 2% in 1990 and 2000, and to 1% in 2010.

Useful vocabulary

PhraseMeaning
agricultural workforcepeople employed in farming
fall sharplydecrease quickly
more than halvedecrease to under half
remain the higheststay at the top level
a downward trenda general decrease
virtually negligiblealmost nothing

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