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.
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The graph below shows the number of passengers using three airports between 2000 and 2020.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
| Category | Dubai | Singapore | Frankfurt |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 10 | 28 | 49 |
| 2004 | 17 | 30 | 51 |
| 2008 | 37 | 37 | 54 |
| 2012 | 58 | 51 | 57 |
| 2016 | 83 | 59 | 61 |
| 2020 | 26 | 12 | 19 |
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 line graph compares the number of passengers who used Dubai, Singapore and Frankfurt airports between 2000 and 2020, in millions.
Overall, passenger numbers rose at all three airports until 2016 and then fell steeply by 2020. Dubai grew the most, while Frankfurt was the busiest airport at the start of the period but not at the end of the growth phase.
Frankfurt began with 49 million passengers, well ahead of Singapore at 28 million and Dubai at 10 million. Its numbers grew slowly but steadily, to 54 million in 2008 and 61 million in 2016. Dubai expanded far faster, from 10 million to 17 million in 2004 and 37 million in 2008, when it drew level with Singapore. It overtook Frankfurt in 2012, with 58 million against 57 million, and peaked at 83 million in 2016.
Singapore rose from 28 million to 30 million in 2004 and 37 million in 2008, then to 51 million in 2012 and 59 million in 2016.
All three airports suffered a severe decline between 2016 and 2020. Dubai's figure fell to 26 million, Frankfurt's to 19 million and Singapore's to only 12 million, the lowest of the three.
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| annual passengers | travellers in a year |
| grow rapidly | expand quickly |
| collapse | fall suddenly and heavily |
| overtake | become larger than |
| busiest | having the highest numbers |
| lose two-thirds | fall by about 67% |
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