1. Business English Upper Intermediate
U2W09
John Silberstein

2. Agenda
Sales: Boiler Room
Talking about Graphs

3. Describing increases and decreases
Graphs
Describing increases and decreases
Some useful phrases for describing increases and decreases. There are two useful sentence structures for doing this:
[noun phrase] + [verb] + [adverb]
For example:
The unemployment rate rose rapidly
The cost of living fell dramatically
[There is/are] + [noun phrase]
There was a rise in unemployment
There has been an increase in the cost of living

4. Describing increases and decreases
Graphs
Describing increases and decreases
Quick Practice
Finish each sentence below so that it means the same as the one given.
1. The price of oil rose sharply.
There…
2. There is a noticeable increase in temperature from May onwards.
Temperature…
3. The number of people attending the theatre has fallen dramatically.
There….

5. Describing increases and decreases
Graphs
Describing increases and decreases
You can also describe increases and decreases by using fractions to show the size of the change
over a certain period. For example:
The cost of rents doubled in less than a year.
Birth rates have halved since the turn of the century.
By July, the price of petrol had fallen by a third.

6. Describing increases and decreases
Graphs
Describing increases and decreases

7. Describing increases and decreases
Graphs
Describing increases and decreases
The chart in the previous activity had very convenient numbers. However, in real life things aren’t quite so easy! Most graphs are not likely to show figures that rise and fall by exact
fractions, such as a half or a third.
What you need to do is make approximations. For example, if real sales figures for oranges rose from 4000 kilos to 7850 kilos, you can say that orange sales almost doubled

8. Describing increases and decreases
Graphs
Describing increases and decreases

9. Graphs Using Prepostions
We just spoke about how important verb tenses are when describing dynamic charts
and tables. Correct use of prepositions is also important. Here are some of the main prepositions you will need to use:
in [month / year / morning, afternoon etc]
at [9 o’clock, am etc]
from..[a point in time]..to… [another point]
between…[a point in time]..and… [another
point]
during [a period of time]
before [a point in time or a period of time]
after [a point in time or a period of time]
by [a point of time arrived at]
until [a point of time reached]
since [from a point in the past until now]

10. Complete each of these sentences with the correct preposition.
Graphs
Using Prepositions
Complete each of these sentences with the correct preposition.
1 ……… January there was a noticeable rise in the number of people taking sick leave from work.
2 Temperatures usually reach a peak ……… about 1 o’clock in the afternoon.
3 From 1997 ……… 2006 there was a steady increase in sales of organic produce.
4 ……… the recession, unemployment grew steadily.
5 Televisions audience viewing figures rise dramatically ……… 6 o’clock in the evening.
6 ……… June sales figures were low, but later they began to increase rapidly.
7 The price of oil had shot up to $70 per barrel ……… August.
8 From November ……… the end of the year energy consumption continued to rise.
9 There has been a marked decrease in road accidents ……… the new laws were introduced in 2005.

11. Prepositions to describe increases and decreases
Graphs
Prepositions to describe increases and decreases
You will also need to be careful when using prepositions with numbers. Simply changing the
preposition can change the whole meaning of a sentence. For example, what’s the difference
between these two sentences?
Newspaper circulation rose by 20,000 newspapers per month.
2) Newspaper circulation rose to 20,000 newspapers per month.

12. Prepositions to describe increases and decreases
Graphs
Prepositions to describe increases and decreases
Remember also that not all words for describing rise and fall will take a preposition, and the
preposition will depend on whether you’re using the word as a verb or a noun. See the table below for more details:

13. Prepositions to describe increases and decreases
Graphs
Prepositions to describe increases and decreases
You will also need to be careful when using prepositions with numbers. Simply changing the
preposition can change the whole meaning of a sentence. For example, what’s the difference
between these two sentences?
Newspaper circulation rose by 20,000 newspapers per month.
2) Newspaper circulation rose to 20,000 newspapers per month.

14. Describing increases and decreases
Graphs
Describing increases and decreases

15. Describing increases and decreases
Graphs
Describing increases and decreases

16. Describing increases and decreases
Graphs
Describing increases and decreases
Answer 1
The two graphs show energy consumption in the UK. The first chart shows energy consumption throughout the entire day in households in the winter and summer. In the winter, energy consumption is about 3200 watts at midnight. Over the next four hours it falls about 200 watts and then rises to a high point of 4200 watts at about 10pm. Consumption then falls dramatically
back to 3200 watts at midnight.
In the summer, energy consumption is about 1300 watts at midnight. It falls to 1000 watts at 4am and rises dramatically to 1600 watts at 8am. It then rises slowly to a peak of 2200 watts at
10pm.
If we look at the pie chart, we can see that heating and hot water use 49 percent of household electricity. Another 15 percent of electricity is used in the kitchen, washing and drying account for 14 percent of usage and 22 percent of electricity is used for other things.
In conclusion, we can see that people in the UK use a lot of electricity in the home.

17. Describing increases and decreases
Graphs
Describing increases and decreases
Answer 2
The two graphs show information about energy consumption at different times of the year and
how energy is used in British homes.
Overall, we can see that energy consumption is far higher in the winter than in the summer,
ranging from about 3000 to over 4000 watts. In the summer, consumption is roughly 2000
watts lower, fluctuating between about 1000 and just over 2000 watts. Interestingly, we can
see that the daily pattern of consumption is similar at both times of the year, with a low point at
around four in the morning and a high point at around 10pm, with a similar rise in consumption
throughout the day.
Turning to the pie chart, we can see that heating and hot water account for almost half of all
home consumption. Kitchen usage, washing and drying and other uses of electricity each account
for about one sixth of energy usage in the home.
Comparing the two graphs, it seems very clear that winter usage is higher because of the cold
weather and increased use of heating at that time of year. People also possibly prefer outdoor
activities during the summer months.