Task 1 :
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The tables below are the results of research, which examined the average percentage marks scored by boys and girls of different ages in several school subjects. Write report for a university lecturer describing the information below.
You should write a minimum of 150 words.

Boys：

Subject Age Maths Science Geography Languages Sports
7 63% 70% 63% 62% 71%
10 65% 72% 68% 60% 74%
13 69% 74% 70% 60% 75%
15 67% 73% 64% 58% 78%

Girls:

Subject Age Maths Science Geography Languages Sports
7 64% 69% 62% 62% 65%
10 65% 73% 64% 67% 64%
13 64% 70% 62% 65% 62%
15 68% 72% 64% 75% 60%

作者建议:

　　This IELTS task 1 example is quite difficult because it presents the student with a lot of data, and because the significant trends in the data are not overly obvious. Let's have a look at how we might go about organising the information in the tables into a task 1 answer.1. First, we need to be aware of all of the variables that make up the data: the scores (percentage averages), the school subjects, the age groups and the gender¹ or sex.

　　2. Now we need to sort the information into some sort of sense:a.) The first thing to do with any table is to find the highest and lowest numbers. Looking at these tables we can see that boys tended to score highly in sport and lowly in languages, and that girls on the other hand tended to score highly in languages and lowly in sport. This is the first and most obvious significant feature of the tables - the boys' strong subject is the girls' weak subject and vice² versa.b.) But a comparison of subject scores between the two sexes reveals only limited significance. We can see that for most of the subjects the boys and girls got similar scores. Boys scored slightly higher in geography, but by the age of 15 the scores were the same. So, all that we can say about the charts in terms of the differences between boys and girls by subject is that, besides sport and languages, they were negligible (not important).c.) The next logical step then, is to look closely at the scores for the different age groups. When we do this we find that some interesting patterns emerge. For all of the subjects, except the weak subject for each sex (languages and sports), the scores, between the ages of 7 and 15, increased overall, for both sexes. But if we look at the scores for the years between these two we see that the improvement was not constant, and that at a particular age the scores for most subjects fell. Also, the age at which this occurred was not the same for boys and girls. This pattern seems to reveal that both boys and girls went through a slump³ in academic performance, but at different times, which is certainly an interesting feature of the data in the tables, and definitely needs to be mentioned. The largest difference between scores for two different age groups ( Languages - 10%; 65-75% 13-15yrs) should also be noticed.

　　3. The next thing to do is to take our analysis of the data and make a plan for our report. A plan for these tables might look like this:a.) Introductory sentence- table shows: percentage scores for school subjects (list), different ages (list), different sexes.b.) Highest and lowest subjects for boys/girls- sport/languages- oppositesc.) Other subjects very similar- subjects by sex not too significantd.) More significant- age groups- all subjects increased (overall)- except for slumps(list subject figures)- different ages for boys/girls- 13-15/ 11-13e.) Concluding sentence- boys performed better in sport, girls languages- both sexes experienced performance slump but at different ages.

　　4. After a plan has been made, we can write the report incorporating the facts and figures from the charts. Look at how this has been done below. Keep in mind that the answer below is quite extensive, and that often because of time answers will not be as detailed⁴ as this. In those cases the least significant information should be discarded. In this case the least significant information is that about boys being slightly higher in Geography, and the part about the greatest difference between two particular age groups.Notice the way data has been incorporated below. The prepositions and other useful terms are in italics.

　　Task 1写作示范: The tables show averaged percentage scores achieved in the school subjects of Maths, Science, Geography, Languages and Sport by children aged⁵ 7, 10, 13, and 15 according to sex.

　　The subjects for which the highest average scores were recorded were Sport,at 78% (boys), and Languages,at 75% (girls). The strongest subject for each sex was revealed to be the weakest for the opposite sex, with these two subjects also comprising the lowest recorded scores,at 60% and 70% respectively.

　　Apart from these two subjects the performance of boys and girls was comparatively similar. Boys tended to score higher in Geography, with scores ranging from 63% to 70%, while scores for girls ranged between 62% and 64%. However, it is significant that at the age of 15 both boys and girls alike averaged a score of 64% for this subject. The differences between the sexes for scores for Maths and Science were negligible.

　　It is more interesting to observe the patterns that emerge when the data is examined in terms of age groups. In general, for both boys and girls, children tended to improve as they got older. For boys, between the ages of 7 and 15, improvement can be observed in these ranges of scores: Maths (63-67%), Science (70-73%), Geography (63-64%), and Sport (71-78%). For girls, it can be observed in these score ranges: Maths (64-68%), Science (69-72%), Geography (62-64%), and Languages (62-75%). The increase in scores for girls for this last subject, Languages, was the greatest overall improvement across the different age groups, and its rise from 65% to 75% also constituted the greatest margin⁶ between scores for any two particular age groups.

　　The exceptions to the general trend were Languages, in which scores for boys steadily⁷ declined from 62% at 7 years to 58% at 15 years, and Sport, in which scores for girls steadily declined from 65% to 60%. The other significant exceptions that emerged were that both boys and girls recorded a slump between particular ages. For girls this happened between the ages of 10 and 13, when scores in Maths fell by 1%, Science 2%, and Geography, Languages and Sport by 2%. For boys the ages at which this occurred were 13 to 15, when Maths and Languages both fell by 2%, Science 1% and Geography by 6%. Boys' scores for sport actually increased by 3% during this period.

　　To sum up, these tables show that in this study, on average, males in this age range performed better in Sport and females performed better in Languages. The other significant pattern that emerged from the data was that boys and girls both went through a slump in performance, but that this slump happened at different ages for the different sexes.