IELTS Vocabulary: paraphrasing and comparisons

Did you notice the paraphrasing that I used in Thursday's lesson?

• the amount of time = the time spent
• 10 to 15-year-olds = aged between 10 and 15
• chatting on the Internet = chatting online = chat online = engage in online conversation
• playing on games consoles = playing computer games = play on their consoles
• more popular = boys favour = girls prefer
• the majority of = most of them = most girls

and the comparisons that I made?

• ...is more popular than...
• Boys favour... / By contrast, girls prefer...
• while 85% of boys..., only 55%...
• close to 70% of girls..., compared to about 50% of this cohort who...
• most of them..., whereas most...

Comments

[Tran Thai Binh]

Cool to learn your updates, Simon!
Many thanks!

[Ayse]

hey simon,
thank you for fantastic lessons you give here.
here's my question: you usually use the verb see in describing trends. as in: "the UK saw a fall in house prices"
can we use "witness" as well? or would it sound unnatural?
cheers

[Jass]

Hi..simon
Thanks a lot for give a fantastic lesson

[Simon]

No problem Tran and Jass!

Ayse,

"witness" is ok - if you Google "the UK witnessed", you'll see examples of this phrase being used. I probably wouldn't choose to use it in an IELTS writing task 1 report myself (it would seem a little forced or exaggerated to me), but it isn't wrong.

[Ayse]

thank you so much!

[Vo Nhi]

Dear Simon!
I really hope to receive your comment about my report below. I know it is a little bit awkward when I post my writing which is not your requirement but I still do it.
The table below gives the figure about the marriages and divorces in the UK from 1950 to 2000
It can be seen that the total marriages number had increased to get a peak at 471 thousand marriages after that it had experienced a delicate decrease till the end of the period. In the same way, the first marriage number also had the trend alike with the total marriages figure but it reached a vertex at 389 thousand occasions in 1970.
In contrast, there is an upward trend with the divorces as well as remarriages between 1950 to 1990, then the last 10 years period witnessed a decrease of divorces and remarriages statics. The highest point of divorces numbers reached a peak at 168 thousand occasions in 1990 while 1960 experienced the lowest number with 26 thousand divorces . Meanwhile, the remarriages figures get the lowest point at 57 thousand cases whereas the number reached the vertex at 140 thousand remarriages.