Band 9 Essay Bank

Academic Task 1- Sample 1

The line graph shows how much was spent in US dollars on books in four European countries between
1995 and 2005.
Overall, people in Germany spent the most on reading materials during the entire period. It is also
clear that despite some fluctuations, spending on books increased in all four places over the 10 years.
German expenditure fluctuated between around $80 million and about $90 million between 1995 and
2003, before increasing to just under $100 million in 2005. France was the only country that
experienced a steady rise, with around $55 million worth of books sold in 1995, about $70 million in
2001 and finally just under $80 million in 2005.
The figure for Italy hovered at around $50 million dollars until 1999, when it steadily rose to just over
$60 million in 2005. Austrians spent approximately $30 million in 1995, and this went up by around
$10 million over the next four years and remained stable for two years, before climbing dramatically
to just above $70 million in 2005.
 Band 9 Essay Bank
Academic Task 1- Sample 2
The line graph below shows the percentage of tourists to England who visited four different
attractions in Brighton.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons
where relevant.

The line graph shows the proportion of visitors to England who visited certain Brighton tourist spots
between 1980 and 2010.
Overall, it can be seen that the percentage of people visiting the pier and pavilion, despite
fluctuations, increased over the 30-year period. The figure for those deciding to go to the art gallery
dropped significantly over the time span, whilst the proportion of festivalgoers stayed relatively stable.
During the 1980s and 1990s, there was a sharp increase in visitors to the pavilion from around 23% to
about 48%, and then the percentage declined significantly to approximately 31% in 2010. The trend
for the art gallery was similar to the pavilion. Visitor numbers increased rapidly from about 22% to
around 37% from 1980 to 1985 and then decreased to just below 10% over the next 25 years.
The number of tourists who visited Brighton’s festival experienced only slight fluctuations, never
falling below 25% or rising above 30%. Visitors to the pier fluctuated from 1980 to 2000 between
roughly 4% and almost 15% and then rose significantly from around 12% to approximately 22%
between 2000 and 2010.
 Band 9 Essay Bank
Academic Task 1- Sample 3
The first chart below shows how energy is used in an average Australian household. The second
chart shows the greenhouse gas emissions which result from this energy use.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons
where relevant.

There are two charts; one represents how energy is utilized in the average home in Australia and the
other illustrates greenhouse gases emitted from this use of electricity.

Overall, we can see that heating both the home and water make up the vast majority of power
consumption, while the highest greenhouse gas emissions come from ‘other devices’ and water
heating.

For power utilization, warming the home takes up nearly half of the total and heating water makes up
nearly a third. The next significant category is ‘other appliances’ with 15% and air conditioning, cooling
and lighting make up just over a tenth of the combined total.

In contrast, heating only produces 15% or the total greenhouse gases, while water heating remains at
around a third. Another significant difference between the two pie charts is ‘other appliances’, which
causes over a quarter of emissions. The remaining three categories make up exactly a quarter of all
greenhouse emissions combined.
 Band 9 Essay Bank
Academic Task 1- Sample 4
The three pie charts below show the changes in annual spending by a particular UK school in 1981,
1991 and 2001.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons
where relevant.

The pie charts illustrate the variations in yearly expenditure in one school in the UK across three
separate years.
The biggest cost for the school in all three years was paying teachers’ wages. The other significant
trends were that the amount spent on insuring the school went up steadily, while the money spent
on other workers’ salaries gradually went down.

In 1981 the school spent 40% of its budget on paying teachers and this went up to half of the total
annual budget in 1991, before falling slightly to 45% 10 years later. Wages for people other than
teachers accounted for around a quarter of total outgoings in 1981 and 1991, but this decreased
significantly to just 15% in 2001.

Insurance costs made up a tiny proportion of yearly outgoings in the first 20 years, but this rose to
nearly one-tenth of the total budget in 2001. Resources fluctuated between 9% and 20% in the
three years, while costs for furniture and equipment varied more widely, between 5% and 23%.
 Band 9 Essay Bank
Academic Task 1- Sample 5
The graph below shows the contribution of three sectors- agriculture, manufacturing, and business
and financial services- to the UK economy in the twentieth century.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons
where relevant.

The graph illustrates how the contributions of agriculture, manufacturing, and business and
financial services to the UK economy changed over the 20th century.

Overall, the financial and business sector saw a remarkable rise, the manufacturing sector
witnessed a steady decrease, and agriculture had undergone a dramatic decline by the end of
the century.

Manufacturing accounted for around 45% of the economy in 1900 and decreased steadily to
approximately 15% by the end of the century. By contrast, the contribution of business and
financial services increased remarkably during the century. To be exact, it began the century at
less than 5% of the economy and then kept climbing rapidly and reached approximately 35% in
2000.

Agriculture, on the other hand, made up the greatest portion of the economy in both 1900 and
1950, at around 50% of the total. By 1975 this had shrunk to just over 10% in 1975 and
continued to drop steeply, ending the century at around 2% of the total contributions to the UK
economy.
 Band 9 Essay Bank
Academic Task 1- Sample 6
The graph below shows the quantities of goods transported in the UK between 1974 and 2002 by
four different modes of transport.

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

The line graph illustrates how products were transported in the UK over a 28 year period.
Overall, the primary means of transportation throughout the period was that of road. Although all
four categories showed an increase over the whole period, rail saw its numbers fluctuate.
Approximately 70 million tonnes of goods were hauled on the roads in 1974 and apart from a slight
dip around 1982, these numbers increased steadily to reach nearly 100 million tonnes in 2002. The
amount of merchandise shipped by pipeline was negligible in 1974, but this figure had risen to just
over 20 million tonnes in 1995 before levelling off.
The number of tonnes of goods transported by water started at just under 40 million, and this rose
by nearly 50% from 1978 to 1982, and remained relatively constant until it jumped again in 1998,
from around 50 to just over 60 million tonnes. The figure for transport by rail fell from approximately
40 million tonnes in 1974 to about 30 million in 1995 and then rose back up to its original number by
2002.
 Band 9 Essay Bank
Academic Task 1- Sample 7
The map below shows the changes in an American town between 1954 and 2014.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons
where relevant.

The map illustrates how a town in America developed between 1954 and 2014.
Over the period, the town went from having mainly residential and industrial areas to having mostly
commercial units north-west of the canal and housing south-east of the canal. It also added some
amenities such as an airport and a stadium.
In the north-east of the town, all of the factories were flattened to make way for a new airport and
some buildings dedicated to commerce. The park next to these new commercial outlets made way for a
new supermarket. In the centre of town, some houses were demolished and commercial buildings
were erected in their place, and this also occurred in the west, where a local supermarket was also
knocked down in order to make way for yet more commercial buildings. The petrol station did not
undergo any changes.
The area south-east of the canal remained relatively unchanged, where all of the residential areas
remained the same, with the exception of the church being replaced by a sports arena.
 Band 9 Essay Bank
Academic Task 1- Sample 8

The chart shows the results of a report from 2008 about the amounts of various energy sources
used in the United States since 1980, and includes predictions until 2030.

Overall, since 1980 the consumption of all sources, except hydropower, has increased, and the
projections show that petrol and oil and coal will continue to grow, while the others are to remain
relatively stable.

From the start, petrol and oil have been the most used sources of energy, starting at 35 quadrillion
units and currently resting at roughly 42 quadrillion units. Natural gas began with 20 quadrillion
units and coal at about 16, but both have increased to the same figure of around 25 quadrillion
units in the present day. Nuclear power, solar and wind power and hydropower each started at
approximately 4 quadrillion units, but while the first two rose to around 7 and 5 quadrillion units,
respectively, hydropower has remained at relatively the same level.

Looking to the future, petrol and oil and coal are forecast to continue increasing by roughly 5 and
6 quadrillion units, respectively. The other four power sources are predicted to remain stable until
2030, with the exception of an additional one quadrillion units for both nuclear power and solar
power in the final few years of the period.
 Band 9 Essay Bank
Academic Task 1- Sample 9

The graphs display information relating to the owners of debt belonging to Greece.

The vast majority of holders of Greek debt are member states of the Eurozone, with Germany, France,
Italy and Spain holding the largest portions.

Eurozone states have a combined exposure of 193 billion euros. ‘Other holders’ of this debt have the
second-highest with 48 billion euros. The IMF is exposed to 32 billion euros of this debt, while the ECB
and other banks are owed 20 billion and 17 billion respectively. The Greek government also has a
liability of 10 billion euros to its own banks.

The Germans have by far the biggest position in this market with just over 56 billion euros, followed in
second place by the French with nearly 42.5 billion euros. The Italian and Spanish states are owed just
over 37 and nearly 25 billion euros, respectively. Poland and Portugal both have minimal risk to Greek
indebtedness with just 1 billion euros each.
 Band 9 Essay Bank
Academic Task 1- Sample 10
The data below shows information relating to companies holding bank accounts in the British Virgin
Islands.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons
where relevant.

The data demonstrates various facts pertaining to businesses that hold money in banks located in the
British Virgin Islands (BVI).
Overall, most of the countries with a high number of companies with offshore banking on these islands
are located in the Western Hemisphere. Switzerland has the highest number of corporate entities and
assets on account. Most significantly, Venezuela is third by total value despite there being no other data
on this country.
Considering the number of companies by country, all North American countries and the majority of
Western European states have at least 1000 corporations with accounts in the BVI. All other regions
have mostly countries with less than 1000. Significantly, South America has two disproportionately
large values with Argentina having more than 2,500 companies and Brazil possessing the third-highest
number in the world at 8,667.
 Band 9 Essay Bank
Switzerland has the highest number of corporate bodies with accounts in the BVI with 11,253, with
France and the U.K. in second and third place, with 9,187 and 8,844 respectively. Predictably,
Switzerland has the highest asset allocation with $31.2 billion, but significantly, Venezuela has $14.8
billion, the third-highest overall, with no data on the number of companies with banking interests in
the BVI.
 Band 9 Essay Bank
Academic Task 1 - Sample 11

The illustration provided displays the various steps of the process by which bricks are produced,
packaged, and ultimately distributed.

Overall, this is a multi-stage man-made process that begins with the extraction of natural resources and
ends with the packaging and distribution of bricks.

To begin, large machines called diggers are used to extract clay from the earth. The clay is then placed
by diggers onto a metal grid, which sifts out larger particles and then rolls the remaining fine clay into a
mixture of sand and water. At this point, the mixture is either placed into moulds or into a machine
which uses a wire cutter to produce bricks of a standard size. Following this, they are placed into a
drying oven for as many as two days.

Once dry, the unbaked bricks are placed into a kiln, baked initially at lower temperatures, then higher
temperatures, and then allowed to cool in a chamber for two to three days. Once adequately cooled,
they are packaged on pallets, which are then loaded onto delivery trucks for distribution.