Describing Changes

21. Look at the table below and write the letter a-f next to the headings 1-6.

C	1	DECLINE
F	2	DEGREE OF CHANGE
A	3	DESCRIBING TRENDS
B	4	GROWTH
E	5	IMPROVEMENT
D	6	STABILITY

A
B	C	D	E	F
accelerate	decline	become
climb	decrease	stable	develop	dramatically
enlarge	diminish	static	improve	gently
expand	drop	flatten out	pick up	quickly
go up	dwindle	level off	recover	rapidly
grow (grew, grown)	fall (fell, fallen)	level out		sharply
increase	go down	remain		steadily
peak	lower	steady		suddenly
rise (rose, risen)	reduce	stable		gradually
shoot (shot) up	slump	static
		unchanged
		stabilise

22. Look at the graph and complete the sentences below using the words and words combinations from the box above in their appropriate forms.

This graph shows the sales results for the last year.

We had a quiet start of the year. Sales (1)r………………………… s………………………… at 6,000 units in January and February. In March the spring sales campaign started, you can see that the sales (2)c……………………………. to 7,000 then and they (3)w………………………… u………… by another 1,000 units in April to (4)s……………………………. at 8,000 units. Our competitors launched a rival product in May and our sales (5)f……………………………. to 5,000 units. They (6)d……………………… by another thousand units in June. But we (7)i……………………… our discounts to the wholesalers and the sales (8)r……………………………. s……………………………., back to 5,000 units in July and then to 6,000 units in August. The (9)d……………………………. r……………………………. came in the next two months. The sales (10)g……………………………. from 10,000 units in September to 13,000 units in October because of the Christmas orders. And the sales (11)w……………………………. d……………………………. by 6,000 units in November when the Christmas orders stopped. They (12)s……………………………. at 7,000 units until the end of the year.