Continents

Exercise: /8

Discussion Take some time to think about these questions and to discuss them with a friend.
Do you know what a continent is? Which continent do you live in? Asia? South America? Africa? Do you know which continent has the most people? Have you ever visited another continent? Which countries did you visit within this continent? The pie charts in the following exercises are about six continents. They give information about the population and wealth of the continents.

Test your knowledge

A pie chart is sliced up like a pie into pieces. Each portion of the pie chart below represents a percentage. It's a good idea to look carefully to see what the ‘whole’ is, and then look at each ‘slice’ of the pie.

Use the information in the pie chart on the right to answer the questions below. Choose either TRUE (T) or FALSE (F) from the drop down menu.

The population of Asia is larger than the combined populations of all the other continents.
The population of Asia is more than four times greater than that of Europe.
The population of Europe is less than a third of that of Asia.
Australasia has by far the smallest population of the six continents.
North America has a quarter of the population of Europe.

Continents by Population

Test your knowledge

Use the information in the pie chart on the right to answer the questions as true or false. Choose either TRUE (T) or FALSE (F) from the drop down menu.

North America has twice as much wealth as Europe.
Australasia is not the poorest continent.
South America has less than half the wealth of Europe.
Asia is the second wealthiest continent.
Asia and South America combined are not as wealthy as North America.

Continents by Wealth

Making comparisons

It’s important to be able to use comparisons when writing about the different percentages shown in a pie chart.

Fill in the gaps below with the adjective, comparative or superlative, and then insert the correct words in the sentences below.

Adjective	Comparative	Superlative
wealthy	wealthier
large		largest
	greater	greatest
few		fewest

The percentage wealth of South America is slightly
than the wealth of Asia.
North America is the
continent.

Continents By Wealth

Introduction to the report

A good answer for Writing Task 1 needs a clear introduction of only one or two sentences. Often it is helpful to think of answering the questions – What? Where? When? After you've found the best opening sentence below, ask yourself – why is this the best one?

Choose the best phrase to complete a sentence for an introduction to a report on the pie chart on the right below.

1.	The pie chart …

	… has six continents and their population.
	… shows the percentages of the total population of six continents – Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, South America and Australasia.
	… gives us important information about Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, South America and Australasia.
	… contains Asian, African, European, and other continents’ percentages.
	… has a different colour for each continent; for example Asia is grey, Europe is yellow, Australasia is red, and so on.

Continents By Population

The body of the report

The body of the report will have paragraphs corresponding to your main points. Where there are two pie charts you can write about one and then the other, as in the example below. This example has the introduction and then the body of the report.

Use the words below to fill in the blank spaces in the three paragraphs below.

followed by

shows

next largest

less

followed by

shows

The first pie chart

the percentage of the world’s population in each of six continents – Asia, Europe, South America, Australasia and North America, and the second pie chart

the wealth of these continents in percentages.

Asia has more than half of the population of all the continents together, at 59%, while Europe is the

with 16%,
Africa (11%), North America (8%), South America (5.5%) and Australasia (0.5%).

In terms of wealth, North America is the richest continent, with 35%,
Europe with 30%. The other continents have much

wealth, with South America having 14%, followed by Asia (13%), Australasia (5%) and Africa (2%).

Continents By Population

Continents By Wealth

Conclusion

The report for Writing Task 1 should have a clear conclusion. This should be two or three sentences at the most, in which you conclude the report by pointing out the major trends that can be seen in the visual information.

Use the words or phrases below to complete the conclusion for this report.

while

It can be seen

a small percentage

despite having

tiny

from the pie charts that the continent with the largest population (Asia) has only

of the wealth (13%), while the continent with the greatest wealth (North America), has only eight per cent of the population. North America and Europe combined have nearly two thirds of the wealth,

they have only 24 per cent of the population. Africa is the poorest continent,

11 per cent of the population, while Australasia, with only a

percentage of the population has five per cent of the wealth.

Continents By Population

Continents By Wealth

Writing a Task One report

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

The pie charts on the right give information about the ethnicity of students at a New Zealand primary school in 1980 and in 2005.

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

Write at least 150 words.

Write an answer for the IELTS Task One type question in the space provided. Then compare your report with our possible answer. Do you think this model answer has an adequate introduction, body and conclusion?

NZ School in 1980

NZ School in 2005

Exercise: /8

IELTS Demo
Academic Writing > Pie Charts >
Continents

Discussion

Test your knowledge

Conclusion

Writing a Task One report