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Process diagram: Life cycle of a salmon

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

WRITING TASK 1

Process diagram

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

The diagram below shows the life cycle of a salmon.

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

Write at least 150 words.

Life cycle of a salmon
  1. 1Eggs in gravelThe female lays eggs in a river nest
  2. 2AlevinHatchlings live off a yolk sac
  3. 3FryYoung fish begin to feed in the stream
  4. 4ParrThey grow stripes and stay in fresh water
  5. 5SmoltThe body adapts for salt water
  6. 6Ocean feedingFish migrate to sea and grow for years
  7. 7Return journeyAdults swim back to their home river
  8. 8SpawningThey breed upstream and the cycle restarts

The cycle then repeats from stage 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 life cycle of a salmon is a continuous process with eight stages, in which fish born in rivers migrate to the sea and return to the same river to breed.
  2. 2The young develop in fresh water, from eggs to alevin, fry and parr, before adapting to salt water as smolts.
  3. 3The adults spend years feeding at sea, then swim back upstream to spawn, which starts the cycle again.

Write it on the clock

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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 (182 words)

The diagram illustrates the life cycle of a salmon, which consists of eight stages.

Overall, the salmon begins and ends its life in fresh water, but it spends several years in the ocean. The cycle is completed when the adults return to their home river to breed. The fish pass through five stages before they reach the sea, and three afterwards.

First, eggs are laid by the female in a nest in the gravel of a river. The hatchlings, called alevin, then live off a yolk sac. Next, the young fish, known as fry, begin to feed in the stream, and they later grow stripes and become parr, which stay in fresh water.

At the smolt stage, the body adapts so that it can live in salt water. The fish then migrate to the sea, where they feed and grow for years.

Each of the early stages has its own name, from alevin to smolt. Finally, the adults swim back to their home river, which is known as the return journey. They breed upstream in the spawning stage, and the cycle restarts.

Useful vocabulary

PhraseMeaning
spawnlay eggs in water
alevina newly hatched salmon with a yolk sac
fryyoung fish
smolta young salmon adapted to salt water
migratetravel to another place
upstreamtowards the source of a river

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