Hi. Welcome back to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam,
and today's lesson is for those of you who will be taking the IELTS test. Now, as usual,
when I do an IELTS class, I will speak a little bit faster, a little bit closer to natural
speed for those of you who need the extra listening practice. But this is for
everybody; there's always something to learn, it's all English. So today we're going to specifically look
at IELTS Task 1, and I'm going to give you a few vocabulary that are essential to success
in IELTS Task 1. You won't necessarily use all of them every time, but you need to know
these nine words that I'm going to show you-or 10 words, depends how you look at it-you need
to know these words so you're ready for pretty much any kind of infographic
that comes your way. Now, most of the time and most of your practice,
I'm sure, is graphs. Okay? So we're going to start with looking at graphs, and we're
going to look at these two words: "fluctuate", a verb, okay? And: "fluctuation", a noun.
Now, from my experience, checking students' or test takers' essays, this word is quite
often misused. Okay? I think sometimes people are not exactly sure what this word means. So, to
show you, I'm going to show you a graph, here. This is a fluctuation. Let's say we're
looking at a span of 2000 to 2014, so we're looking 15 years of sales, let's say. Sales and
whatever the number is in hundred of millions. Okay? "Fluctuate" means to go up and down
quite rapidly. Okay? It doesn't have to be rapid; it could be steady, but there's an up, there's a down,
there's an up, there's a down. If you're going something like this, this
you don't call a fluctuation. Even though it's not a straight line, it's still not a
fluctuation, because overall, the sales are still going upwards, they're still increasing.
Fluctuation, there must be some downward movement as well. It goes up and there's down from...
Let's say from the starting point. So here we go up, down, up, down, up, down. Here,
it's mostly up. You very rarely go down below where you started. So overall, you have an
upward motion. This is to fluctuate. So, you can use it as a verb: Over the span of the
recording, of the record, of the 15 years, sales fluctuated from let's say 100 million
to as little... And ended up here, let's say, it's a little bit lower to 110. So, overall, there
was a slight increase, but sales fluctuated throughout the period. Okay? You can use "fluctuation". If you want to
talk about the graph as a whole, you can say: "The graph shows fluctuations in the sales
numbers." Okay? The graph shows fluctuations. Sales fluctuated. So you can talk about the...
Whatever is on the x-axis itself, or you can talk about the graph as a whole. Use "fluctuate"
for whatever item is here; use "fluctuation" for the graph as a whole. Next: "plateau". Now, I know most of you probably
know this word. If you're doing IELTS, you've heard this word before and you've used it before,
but a lot of you don't seem to understand that "plateau" can be both a noun and a verb.
Just like: "peak", the highest point can be both a noun and a verb. Okay? So, just to
make sure we understand: something is going up, it stops for a while, it goes steady,
it goes up again, it goes steady. This area is a plateau. This area is a plateau. So, I'm
going to use the same information, sales and time. So, sales increased for the first
five years, then they plateaued for the next seven years, after which, they started to rise
again until they reached their next plateau. So, you see, I've used "plateau" as a verb:
"They increase until they plateaued. Then they continued to increase until they reached
their next plateau." Verb, noun. Both of them are okay. Try to use both of them, and make
sure that you're referring to something. Now, if you have something like this, this could
be a plateau. But if you're going like this, this is not a plateau. A plateau, usually, is
not very short. It has to be somewhat extended. If it's too short, then it's just a little
pause, it's just a little steady pause. If it's extended, then you have a plateau. And
then, let's say it increased again... Actually, I'll use a different colour now so we're not
confused. And then started declining. So, sales increased, increased, it plateaued for a
while, then they increased again, then they plateaued again, and then they increased again
until they reached their peak. Let's say this is 250. Okay? So, sales continuously increased
until they reached their peak of 250,000." Now, again, "peak" can be a noun or a verb.
Sales increased until they peaked at 250. After which, there was a sharp decline over
the next three years. Okay? So sharp decline over the next three years. Now, if you have the opposite way, you have
sales going down... Excuse me. Sales are going down, down, down. Now, technically, you could
say they "bottom out". "Bottom out" means they reach their lowest level. But a safer
way, because a lot of people also misuse this expression, the safest way: "Until they reached
their lowest point." Simple is best. But "peak" you pretty much have to use, because you can't
say: "There's going to be a lot of highest points, highest point, highest point." You
have to have sentence and vocabulary variety in your writing, so use "peak" as a noun, use
"peak" as a verb, use "plateau" as a noun, use "plateau" as a verb. Okay, let's continue. You've already heard me
use this word: "overall". Again, "overall" does not mean in conclusion. A lot of people use
this word to introduce a conclusion. "Overall" basically means you're looking at the whole
graph, so you're looking at the entire span of something. Here, we're looking at 2000
to 2014. This is your span. Okay? This is the duration of the information, how long
this information is being recorded on the graph. Okay? So, you could say that: "Although
sales started very low and they fluctuated, and they reached a peak and then dropped again,
overall, there is an increase." What does that mean? It means: from this point to this
point, there is an increase. So don't say: "It went up, it went down, it went up. It
went up for this year, then down for this year." Just say: "There were fluctuations,
but overall, sales went up over the span of the report... Of the
reported information." Okay? Now, of course, we're speaking about "span".
You must use this word. A lot of people do not use this word enough when they're talking
about time, a graph with time. Okay? So, again: "span" is the duration from the beginning to
the end. And again, "span" is both a noun and a verb. The graph shows an overall increase
over the span of a decade. This word is crucial. Whenever you're talking about movement over
time, you always talk about "over": over the span of. Okay? Now, you don't say: "In the
span of a decade". If you say: "In the span of a decade", it means between 10 years, something
happened. "Over the span of the decade" means you're talking about beginning to end. So
it's very important to use this preposition with "span", with motion. As a verb: "The
info, the information spans 15 years." It means it goes from let's say 2000 to 2014.
It covers 15 years of recorded information. "Span" is a verb, "span" is a noun. Try to use
both. Now, again, remember you don't want to use the same word more than twice in an
essay, unless you're using it once as a noun, another time as a verb, you demonstrate command
of this word, which will get you a little bit extra points if you use them correctly.
Okay, let's look at some other words. Okay, so now we have a few more words we're
going to look at. Now, the reason I chose these is because these are very, very commonly
misused. Okay? People send me their samples, they want me to check them. I fix these words
all the time. People always make mistakes with these words. Ages. If you're going to
talk about age groups within your charts, or tables, or graphs, or whatever, then you're
going to use these words. Now, let's say there are groups, there are four age groups: 18-25,
26-35, etc. If you want to talk about this group... Now, there's two ways you can do it.
You can mention the young group, the middle group, the old group, or if you want to talk about
specific ages, you can say: "Those aged..." It basically means "who are aged 18-25". So
this is a participle, now, a reduced adjective clause. Okay? "Those aged 18-25 were asked
to do this. Those 18-25 years of age were asked to do this." Okay? This is the exact
same meaning. "Those aged 18-25", "those who are". Although, technically, "who were" because
I used "were" here, but you get the idea. "Those who were 18-25 years of age were asked..."
"Years of age". Or: "Those 18-25 years old". Do not mix the two. If you use the word "aged",
do not use the word "old". If you use the word "old", do not use the word "aged". They
don't go together; it's one or the other. Then you have this one: "18-25-year-olds".
Now you're making this whole thing into one noun. Notice here is the "s", no "s" here.
Notice you have the hyphen and the hyphen. This extra hyphen is because of the range.
If you have only 25-year-olds, that's fine, you still have this hyphen, you still have
this hyphen, no "s", "s", and the whole thing is now a noun. So three ways to talk about
ages, but do not mix them up. And this is a very common mistake people make on IELTS
1, and this is something that the graders are looking for, because this is somewhat
basic knowledge, basic grasp of the language. Now: "percent" and "percentage". People always
mix these two words up. What do you need to know about "percent"? "Percent" is an adverb.
"Percentage" is a noun. They are used differently. When we talk about percent, we always use
it... Sorry, this (%) is "percent" by the way. You can use the symbol, or you can use
the word, but don't use both. Always use a number with this word. If you have the word
"percent" in your writing, there must be a number before it, otherwise, you're not using
it correctly. "10% of the men surveyed said that..." Percentage, on the other hand, means
a small chunk of the whole. Right? You have 5%, you have a very small percentage of the
whole. You have 95%, you have a very large percentage of the whole. So, let's say 10% is
small. "A small percentage of the men surveyed said that..." One thing you have to remember:
you're almost always going to use an adjective with this word, because if you don't, if you just
say: "A percentage", well 5% is a percentage, 50% is a percentage, 95% is a percentage,
so just saying "percentage" alone doesn't really give me much information. You have to
say: "A small percentage, a large percentage," etc. But remember: always a number,
never a number with this one. Now, "respectively", this is a very good word
to use. Again, people often misuse it. One thing to remember when you use the word "respectively"...
First of all, you must have two lists. Okay? You have two lists with equal numbers of items
and equal number of items in each list. That means you have to have a minimum two things
in the list. You could have many items in the list, but as far as IELTS Task 1 is concerned,
I recommend no more than three. Okay? Now, the thing about "respectively", what this
word means that the other of the first list matches the order of the second list. So let's
look at an example. "I have three kids: Tommy, Jake, and Katy. They are 5, 10, and 7 years
old, respectively." Put a comma before the word "respectively". Now, I don't need the
"years old", I just put it there to show you. You can take it out, you can leave it in;
both okay. This is the first thing in the list, this is the second, this is the third.
What "respectively" tells me is that these numbers match the order. So, Tommy is 5, Jake
is 10, Katy is 7, respectively. Right? The order matches the order. That's what this
word is used to do, to show you that. Lastly, the word "latter" and "former". People
sometimes mix these two up. Again, you're going to have two... You're going to mention
two things, or two people, or two places, or two anything in one sentence. Now you want
to discuss each of these things individually in the next sentence. Okay? So, "latter" means
you're referring to the second thing mentioned earlier; "former" means the first thing. So
if I take Katy out and I have... I have three kids, Tommy and Jake, the latter... Who is
the latter? The latter is 10 years old. The latter is Jake because I mentioned him second.
The former, Tommy, is 5. Former - first; latter - second. Okay? These are the words that you must fully grasp
to use for the IELTS Task 1. At some point in your practice or official test, you will
use half or maybe even all of these words in your task. Okay? Make sure you
know how to use them correctly. Also, if you need any more information
about IELTS, some more writing tips, check out my site:
www.writetotop.com. Of course, go to www.engvid.com, do the
quiz on the quiz section of that site. Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube
channel, and come back again. Bye.
