When describing changes I prefer to avoid words like soar, rocket and plummet because they are too "sensationalist" - they exaggerate too much, and are more journalistic than academic in style.
Simon说他会选择回避这类单词，原因是它们太“耸人听闻”，太夸张，更新闻化，而非学术化。
Instead, we can demonstrate good control of grammar by using words like increase, rise and fall as both nouns and verbs:
The line graph compares the percentage of people aged 65 or more in three countries over a period of 100 years.
It is clear that the proportion of elderly people increases in each country between 1940 and 2040. Japan is expected to see the most dramatic changes in its elderly population.
In 1940, around 9% of Americans were aged 65 or over, compared to about 7% of Swedish people and 5% of Japanese people. The proportions of elderly people in the USA and Sweden rose gradually over the next 50 years, reaching just under 15% in 1990. By contrast, the figures for Japan remained below 5% until the early 2000s.
Looking into the future, a sudden increase in the percentage of elderly people is predicted for Japan, with a jump of over 15% in just 10 years from 2030 to 2040. By 2040, it is thought that around 27% of the Japanese population will be 65 years old or more, while the figures for Sweden and the USA will be slightly lower, at about 25% and 23% respectively.
Overview
Don't mention any numbers; just describe the main features / overall trend.
Paragraph 3
A description (and comparison) of the figures for Inner London and Outer London would probably be enough for this paragraph.
Paragraph 4
Maybe mention Brighton and Hove as the only area outside Inner London with a percentage change above 100%. We could also highlight Bristol as the second city in terms of cycling numbers. Finish with a general statement about the other areas (e.g. all below 10,000 residents cycling to work).
Simon的建议是：
Introduction：不要提任何数字
Overview：不要提任何数字，只是描述一下主要特征或整体趋势。
Paragraph 3：描述或比较一下伦敦地区和非伦敦地区的数据。
Paragraph 4：可以提一下Brighton and Hove，因为它是惟一在非伦敦地区里百分比变化超过100%的地区。我们也可以强调在骑车数量上Bristol是第二大城市。最后对其它地区做一个总体描述，如所有地区都少于10,000居民骑行上班。
如果大家看过之前的Simon小作文分析的话，会知道Simon的小作文总是写4个段落，分别是：
1. Introduction - paraphrase the question
2. Overview - describe 2 main or general things
3. Details
4. Details
现在咱们先不看Introduction和Overview，而是关注在两个Details段落，有的同学可能会问，为什么要写两个Details段落呢？Simon是这样回答的：The answer is that this encourages you to divide the information into 2 groups, and hopefully this means that your essay will be better organised and you'll make some useful comparisons. 他是说，鼓励大家把Details分成两个段落，你的作文会更加有条理有组织，而且还能对图中信息做些更有用的比较。小站老师也认为，将所有的信息集中在一个段落里会使文章结构看起来不成比例，所以强烈大家将Details写成两段。
现在帮大家贴出完整范文：
The table compares the numbers of people who cycled to work in twelve areas of the UK in the years 2001 and 2011.
Overall, the number of UK commuters who travelled to work by bicycle rose considerably over the 10-year period. Inner London had by far the highest number of cycling commuters in both years.
In 2001, well over 43 thousand residents of inner London commuted by bicycle, and this figure rose to more than 106 thousand in 2011, an increase of 144%. By contrast, although outer London had the second highest number of cycling commuters in each year, the percentage change, at only 45%, was the lowest of the twelve areas shown in the table.
Brighton and Hove saw the second biggest increase (109%) in the number of residents cycling to work, but Bristol was the UK’s second city in terms of total numbers of cycling commuters, with 8,108 in 2001 and 15,768 in 2011. Figures for the other eight areas were below the 10 thousand mark in both years.
(172 words, band 9)
词汇总结：
本文最值得总结的是，Simon写了大量的不同词组来替代the numbers of residents cycling to work",分别有
· the numbers of people who cycled to work
· the number of UK commuters who travelled to work by bicycle
The bar graph shows the global sales (in billions of dollars) of different types of digital games between 2000 and 2006.
首先来构思一下段落结构。Simon是这样说的，For the task 1 report, I aim for 9 sentences.他认为小作文应该写9句，具体结构如下：
· Introduction: 1 sentence
· Overview (summary): 2 sentences
· First 'details' paragraph: 3 sentences
· Second 'details' paragraph: 3 sentences
写作风格一向简洁直接的Simon认为，Introduction段落一句话足够介绍图表大意。Overview段落用两句话作进一步Summary。第三段和第四段作为DetailsParagraph每段都应该写三句。小站老师要提醒大家的是，Simon同时还说，“Remember that this is just my approach, and it's what I tell my students to aim for (some reports might contain 8, 10 or 11 sentences, which is fine). ”所以大家也不需要拘泥于9句，只要内容需要，上下浮动几句都是没问题的。
按照Simon的结构，说回这道题目，大家现在要思考三件事：
- how you would paraphrase the question for your introduction如何在Introduction段复述问题
- what two things to include in your overview paragraph如何在Overview段总结两点信息
- how to separate your description of details into two paragraphs如何将图中的细节写入两个段落
首先来看看Simon是如何对问题进行复述的：
The bar chart compares the turnover in dollars from sales of video games for four different platforms, namely mobile phones, online, consoles and handheld devices, from 2000 to 2006.
大家可以看以看出，在复述的时候，Simon对于题目中的different types of digital games进行了具体描述“namely mobile phones, online, consoles and handheld devices”，shows替换成了compares。这里小站老师要跟大家说一个Simon的一个颠覆性的建议，他认为，虽然我们在字典里能找到将近10个show的同意词，但是并不是用到less common的词汇的分数就会越高，有很多单词对于一个native speaker来说，show的很多同义词用来表示图表“显示”的时候很奇怪，比如"the graph exhibits",而且你记太多同义词经常不知道用哪个而浪费了时间，所以Simon建议大家只需记住两个show的同义词“Illustrate”和“Compare”。
然后我们来看一下Simon写的Overview段落：
It is clear that sales of games for three out of the four platforms rose each year, leading to a significant rise in total global turnover over the 7-year period. Sales figures for handheld games were at least twice as high as those for any other platform in almost every year.
这里小站老师想着重通过figure这个单词再来告诉大家Simon的一个颠覆性的建议。之前看到有学生问Simon是否可以用rate来替换figure。他的回答是“In many cases, no you can't”，理由是这样的：I like the phrase "the figure for" because it can be used instead of "the number of" e.g. "the number of people who live in cities" could be "the figure for people who live in cities". But I wouldn't write "the rate of people who live in cities". You have to be careful with the word "rate" - look it up on Google to find common uses e.g. unemployment rate, birth rate, crime rate,rate of change. Here's my tip: if you're not sure, don't use it. 说到表达数据的词，然后又有学生问了，那我能不能用"the data of" instead of "the number of"?Simon回答：No. I would only use "data" instead of the word "information" e.g. "the chart gives/shows information about..." could be "the chart gives/shows data about...".所以，小站老师提醒大家，不要觉得单词汉意相同就可以做同义替换，一定要弄清每个单词的常见用法。
以下是完整范文：
The bar chart compares the turnover in dollars from sales of video games for four different platforms, namely mobile phones, online, consoles and handheld devices, from 2000 to 2006.
It is clear that sales of games for three out of the four platforms rose each year, leading to a significant rise in total global turnover over the 7-year period. Sales figures for handheld games were at least twice as high as those for any other platform in almost every year.
In 2000, worldwide sales of handheld games stood at around $11 billion, while console games earned just under $6 billion. No figures are given for mobile or online games in that year. Over the next 3 years, sales of handheld video games rose by about $4 billion, but the figure for consoles decreased by $2 billion. Mobile phone and online games started to become popular, with sales reaching around $3 billion in 2003.
In 2006, sales of handheld, online and mobile games reached peaks of 17, 9 and 7 billion dollars respectively. By contrast, turnover from console games dropped to its lowest point, at around $2.5 billion.
