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 electric cars sold in four countries between 2012 and 2022.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
| Category | China | United States | Norway | India |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 10 | 50 | 5 | 0 |
| 2014 | 55 | 120 | 18 | 1 |
| 2016 | 260 | 160 | 30 | 2 |
| 2018 | 780 | 360 | 60 | 3 |
| 2020 | 1,200 | 300 | 100 | 5 |
| 2022 | 4,400 | 630 | 130 | 40 |
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 line graph illustrates how many electric cars were sold in China, the United States, Norway and India between 2012 and 2022, in thousands.
Overall, sales rose in all four countries, but China's growth was far greater than that of the others and it became the clear market leader. India remained negligible for most of the period.
China began with just 10,000 sales in 2012, behind the United States at 50,000. It overtook the Americans between 2014 and 2016, with 260,000 against 160,000 in 2016, and then expanded rapidly to 780,000 in 2018 and 1,200,000 in 2020. In 2022 it reached 4,400,000, an enormous figure compared with the other countries.
The United States grew more slowly, from 50,000 to 120,000 in 2014 and 360,000 in 2018. Sales slipped to 300,000 in 2020 but recovered strongly to 630,000 in 2022.
Norway, a much smaller market, saw a steadier increase from 5,000 in 2012 to 60,000 in 2018, 100,000 in 2020 and 130,000 in 2022. India had only 1,000 sales in 2014 and just 5,000 in 2020, though sales jumped to 40,000 in 2022.
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| electric vehicle sales | the number of electric cars bought |
| rise exponentially | increase at an ever-faster rate |
| a modest increase | a small rise |
| remain minimal | stay very small |
| dip | fall slightly |
| in the final two years | in the last part of the period |
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