Writing Task 1: The diagrams show data for a flu epidemic which hit a large country town in 1996.

Figure 1 gives the number of persons who died; Figure 2 shows the percentage breakdown of females who received a new flu vaccine; and Figure 3 gives the number of cases of flu before and during the epidemic. In Figure 1 it can be seen that the flu was responsible for the deaths of 2 females but no males in the period from March to May. However, from June to August, there were 4 female deaths and 1 male death. According to the pie chart in Figure 2, only those females most at risk were given the new flu vaccine; 28% did not take part in the trial. Of those females who took part, 35% were aged (over 65 years old); 24% were babies or children; and 13% were either hospitalised or receiving other medical attention. From Figure 3 it is clear that the new vaccine had a positive effect on the number of new cases of flu reported in females. There were just over 1000 cases reported in March, climbing rapidly to a peak of 3500 in June. Thereafter, the number of cases dropped slowly to about 2800 in August, before levelling off at 2500 for the rest of the year. For males, the figures were lower but showed a similar trend throughout the epidemic. (232 words) Writing Task 2: A much debated issue these days is whether citizens should take out private health insurance or not. The cost of providing free medical care for both the wealthy and the poor is far too great for any government, and most people agree that if you can pay for insurance, you should. In this essay, I will argue that all who can afford it should be insured, but free medical care must be made available for those too poor to do so. The most important reason for encouraging people to take out private health insurance is the cost to the government of health care. Free health cover for people who are able to pay for it is a waste of public money. Of course, people will only pay health insurance premiums if they know that they are getting good value for their money. If they get sick, they should pay very little or nothing at all. In addition, the privately insured are entitled to special benefits such as having the choice of their own doctors, and being able to avoid long waiting lists for hospital beds. On the other hand, those who really cannot afford to pay private insurance premiums, which are often very high, are still entitled as citizens to the best medical care available they cannot be expected to pay their own medical bills. However, if they are working, they should still pay a percentage of their wage (say 1 to 2%) as a tax which pays towards the cost of providing 'free' medical services. In conclusion, most people should privately insure their health, but it is unreasonable to suppose that all citizens can afford it. Therefore, a safety net in the form of a basic free health care system must exist for the very poor and the unemployed. (301 words) 1

Writing Task 1 In June 1996, an experimental flu vaccine was trialed in a large country town on females only . Write a report for a university tutor describing the information shown in the diagrams below.

Writing Task 2 You are advised to spend a maximum of 40 minutes on this task. Write an essay for a university lecturer on the following topic: The costs of medical health care are increasing all the time. Governments care finding it difficult to balance the health care budget. Should citizens be totally responsible for their own health costs and takeout private health insurance, or is it better to have a comprehensive healthcare system which provides free health services for all? Discuss.

This bar chart compares how long people can expect to live in seven different countries. We can see that in each of the seven countries people have a life expectancy of between 63 years and 83 years. People will live longest in Canada at 83 years and the United States (81 years), while Bangladesh has the lowest life expectancy at just 63 years. Of the other countries, Turkey, Vietnam, Iran and India all have a similar level close to the average of 73 years. We should also note that women are expected to live longer than men in all these countries. On average, females will live approximately 4 years longer than men, although there are differences here. The greatest difference is in the United States (about 5 years), while in Iran females are expected to live only 2 years longer than men. However, the major exception is Bangladesh where both genders have the same life expectancy. Thus, we can see there are comparisons to be made in life expectancy both in geographical location and gender

This chart shows the relative popularity of broadband and dial up internet access in 10 countries from Europe, Asia and North America. It is evident that broadband tends to be more common than dial up. In Japan approximately four times as many houses have broadband (40%) rather than dial up (10%). A similar pattern can be seen in the USA, Malaysia and Italy. In contrast, in France and Germany broadband is only 3-4% more popular, while in Australia they are equally used at 20 %. The major exceptions are the United Kingdom and India where more houses have dial up access. The other major point to note is that in the USA over 65% of households have internet access, while in India only 20% do. In Australia, most of the European countries and Japan just over half of the people have internet at home. Only about 40% of Italians, however, can use the internet at home. The country with the lowest figure is India at less than 20%. (168 words)

This bar chart shows how second language proficiency varies between males and females in 6 different countries. It is immediately apparent that while there is significant regional variation in second language ability, typically a higher percentage of females than males speak a second language well. If we look at males we can see that India has much the greatest proportion of proficient second language speakers at around 55% and China has the least at fewer than 18%. There is only a 10% difference in competency ranging from around 40% to around 30% between Romania, Vietnam, Russia and Thailand in second to fourth places respectively. There are, however, notably more female than male second language speakers in every country with the exception of Thailand. So, India once again leads the way with around 65%, closely followed by Romania and then Vietnam and Russia at 56 and 42% in turn. The two countries with fewest proficient second language speakers are China and Thailand at around 30%. The final point to note is that of the countries in the report, India would appear to have the highest overall proportion of proficient second language speakers and China the least

This bar chart shows the different reasons for making journeys in the UK in 2006 and how males and females differed in this. It is immediately apparent that the most common purposes for travelling were commuting and shopping, both being around 20 per cent of trips. The next most common reasons were visiting friends and doing the school run at 15%, closely followed by personal business at around 10%. Travelling for sport and entertainment (7%) was only just more common than journeys for educational purposes (6%). Finally, the fewest number of trips were travelling for holidays and walking, both of which accounted for around 3 per cent of all journeys. Typically, there were few major differences between males and females. In holidays, personal business and walking both sexes took approximately the same amount of journeys, while slightly more men travelled for educational purposes and more women visited friends. Notably, almost twice as many men as women travelled for entertainment reasons and, likewise, around 7% more men commuted to work. The two areas in which women travelled significantly more than men were shopping and the school run.

Typically, the main features are

1. high numbers 2. the closest similarities

3. the biggest contrasts 4. low numbers

This table shows how age affected the amount of sport boys took part in in the UK in 2010 by comparing boys from 6 to 11 years old with boys from 12 to 16 years old. It is immediately clear from the table that boys in the younger age group were more active in sport than their older counterparts. In football, basketball and cricket this difference was around 10% but fell to only 2 % in rugby. The one exception was in swimming where there was no change in the figures. If we compare the sports, we can see that there was no difference in the comparative popularity of the sports between the age groups. In both cases, football was by far the most popular sport at an average of approximately 82%, with cricket and basketball coming next at around 40% and 30% respectively. By contrast, swimming and rugby were the least popular sports at 19% and 22%. 6

This diagram shows the different stages in the process of making a purchase with a credit card. We can see from it that there are five different parties involved in such a transaction and there are seven different steps until the merchant receives payment. The first step is that the customer offers to pay for the goods by credit card. At that point, the merchant has to request for the payment to be authorized by the credit card organization, which must also request authorization in turn from the consumers bank. Once that authorization has been received, the merchant can then release the goods to the customer. The merchant, however, does not receive the money for the transaction until it has paid a fee to the credit card organization. After that has been paid, the consumers issuing bank will transfer the money for the transaction to the merchants own bank, which will then credit the merchants bank account with the amount of the purchase less the credit card fee.

This diagram shows how the carbon cycle works in nature. The first part of the cycle is providing plants and animals on both land and sea with the carbon dioxide they need to exist and the second part of the cycle is the return of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. The first part of the cycle shows a food chain where plants and grasses absorb carbon dioxide from the air. These plants are a food source for primary consumers such as insects which are in turn eaten by the second level consumers, including smaller birds and fish. At the end of this food chain are larger animals and mammals which use the secondary level consumers as a source of carbon and food. The second part of the cycle shows how there are two main ways in which carbon dioxide is returned to the atmosphere. This can either happen as a result of living beings breathing or consuming fuel, or as a product of the waste and remains from their death.

At the beginning of the process, clay is dug from the ground. The clay is put through a metal grid, and it passes onto a roller where it is mixed with sand and water. After that, the clay can be shaped into bricks in two ways: either it is put in a mould, or a wire cutter is used. At the fourth stage in the process, the clay bricks are placed in a drying oven for one to two days. Next, the bricks are heated in a kiln at a moderate temperature (200 - 900 degrees Celsius) and then at a high temperature (up to 1300 degrees), before spending two to three days in a cooling chamber. Finally, the finished bricks are packaged and delivered.

model answer: Most consumer goods go through a series of stages before they emerge as finished products ready for sale. Raw materials and manufactured components comprise the initial physical input in the manufacturing process. Once obtained, these are stored for later assembly. But assembly first depends upon the production planning stage, where it is decided how and in what quantities the stored materials will be processed to create sufficient quantities of finished goods. The production planning stage itself follows the requirements of the goods' design stage that proceeds from extensive research. After assembly, the products are inspected and tested to maintain quality control l Those units that pass the inspection and testing stages are then packaged, despatched and offered for sale in retail outlets. The level of sales, which is the end point of the manufacturing process, helps determine production planning. A product's design is not only the result of product research, but is also influenced by testing and market research. If the testing stage (after assembly and inspection) reveals unacceptable problems in the finished product, then adjustments will have to be made to the product's design. Similarly, market research, which examines the extent and nature of the demand for products, has the role of guiding product design to suit consumer demands which may change with time. Market research, while influenced by product sales, also serves to foster future sales by devising suitable advertising for the goods. Thus the reality of consumer goods manufacturing goes well beyond a simple linear production process.

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The diagram below shows the typical stages of consumer goods manufacturing, including the process by which information is fed back to earlier stages to enable adjustment.

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