Model answer
A high band model answer to a real Academic Task 1 question, with the task it answers. 20 minutes, at least 150 words.
This is a model answer to a real Academic Task 1 question. Read the task first, write your own answer, and only then read the model. Reading it first tells you very little about your own writing.
A model answer shows you the target. It does not show you the gap between your answer and that target, which is why the band sample answers with corrections are worth reading alongside it.
The task
Write your own answer before reading the model.
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The table shows the amount of coal used by different sectors in the UK.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
The answer
Written at the length the test actually asks for.
The table given has data concerning the use of coal in Britain from 1975 to 2000, divided into 5 different categories.
The most striking feature is that despite a general rate of decline over the thirty years given, power stations use substantially more coal than all of the other sectors combined. However, this figure fell by almost half from 1980, with nearly 90 million tonnes, down to less than 50 million tonnes by 2000.
A declining rate can also be seen for the use of coal for both domestic and industrial purposes, with the largest drop being from 1975 to 1980. The widest variation between these two sectors was in 1990, when industry accounted for 4.5 million tonnes whereas domestic use stood at only 2.7 million tonnes.
The services sector consumed approximately 1 per cent of the total use in all years except 1975, when the figure was over 3 per cent.
Overall, the use of coal fell by over half in the period given, with power stations being the highest consumer throughout.
173 words
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