Writing Practice
Exercise 1 (Unit 6)
Task 1: Presenting and Comparing Data
Guide Practice
Look at the following question and table.
Leisure activities % of age group
16 - 19 25 - 29 60 – 69
Watching TV/video 99 99 99
Visiting/Entertaining friends or relations 98 98 95
Listening to tapes/CDs 98 93 65
Listening to the radio 95 94 83
Reading books 63 64 66
DIY (Do It Yourself) 25 50 38
Gardening 15 35 61
Dressmaking/needlework/knitting 9 14 27
Source: Social Trends
Answering from the data:
The table shows the percentages of people taking part in certain leisure activities. According/base on the figure, the single most wanted/prefer/popular leisure activity in the UK is watching television and radio, which has a 99% participant rate across all selections of the population. Visiting friends and relations is almost the same rate, with 95% or more of all age ranges socializing on regular basis.
Listening to music is most popular with the two younger each groups, while the figure is approximately one third/30% lower for older people. On the other the other hand, gardening and needlework are more popular with 60-69-year-olds. For example, almost 61%/twice older people enjoy gardening compare with 20-29-year-olds. Finally, it seems that DIY appeals most to people in their twenties.
From the information we can see that the figures for the most popular activities are fairly similar across the age groups. However, there are considerable different when we look at the more minority interests.
