Two charts together: solar power and a country's electricity
You can describe two different charts in one report, with one overview and a clear link between them.
Some Academic Task 1 questions give you two charts at once, often of different kinds. Here it is a line graph and a pie chart. You still have about 20 minutes and at least 150 words for both.
At band 7, the report presents a clear overview and main trends or differences are identified. With two charts, the overview has to cover both, and the report reads as one piece of writing when it shows how they connect.
Warm-up
Which unit?
Two charts, two different units. One of these sentences reports both of them correctly. Which one?
Read thisLine graph: electricity from solar power, 1 TWh in 2005 and 45 TWh in 2025. Pie chart, 2025 only: solar power 18% of all electricity.
Which sentence is correct?
How it works
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The line graph below shows the amount of electricity generated from solar power in one country between 2005 and 2025. The pie chart shows the sources of the country's electricity in 2025.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
The second chart in the same task. In the exam, both charts appear on screen under the task wording.
The method for two charts
- 1Read both titles and units
The line graph gives amounts in TWh over twenty years. The pie chart gives percentages for one year. Every number you write keeps its own unit.
- 2Find the link
Here the charts meet in 2025: the line ends at 45 TWh, and the pie shows what share of all electricity that was.
- 3Write one overview for both
Two sentences, no numbers: the main trend in the line graph, and the main feature of the pie chart.
- 4Give each chart a paragraph
Describe the changes over time in one paragraph, then the shares in the next, starting with the link.
- 5Keep to the main features
Two charts hold more data than 20 minutes allows. Choose the biggest changes and the largest and smallest shares.
The report, paragraph by paragraph
The parts, in order
What each chart shows, in your own words, in one sentence or two.
The main trend of the line and the main feature of the pie, with no numbers.
The changes over time, with figures in TWh.
The link sentence, then the shares, largest first.
Watch me do one
First the units. The line is in terawatt hours, the pie in percentages. I write TWh next to every number from the line, so I never mix them up.
The line: slow at first, 1 to 4, then a steep climb to 15 by 2015, slower growth to 19 by 2020, and a sharp rise to 45. The big picture is a large rise, fastest at the end.
The pie: natural gas is the biggest slice, 38%. Solar is second with 18%, just ahead of coal at 17% and wind at 15%. Gas and coal together make 55%, which is more than half.
The link is 2025. The 45 TWh at the end of the line is the same electricity as the 18% slice. That sentence joins my two detail paragraphs.
So my overview says: solar grew dramatically and was the second-largest source by 2025, but gas and coal together still supplied more than half.
A model answer
The line graph shows how much electricity one country produced from solar power between 2005 and 2025, while the pie chart shows where all of its electricity came from in 2025. Overall, solar generation grew dramatically over the period, and by 2025 solar power was the country's second-largest source of electricity. Even so, natural gas and coal together still supplied more than half of the total. In 2005, solar power produced only 1 terawatt hour (TWh). Output rose slowly to 4 TWh in 2010 and then climbed steeply to 15 TWh by 2015. Growth slowed over the next five years, with output reaching 19 TWh in 2020, before a sharp rise to 45 TWh in 2025, three times the 2015 figure. The 45 TWh generated by solar power in 2025 made up 18% of the country's electricity. Natural gas was by far the largest source, at 38%, and together with coal, at 17%, it accounted for 55% of the total. Solar was only just ahead of coal, and wind supplied a similar share, at 15%. The remaining 12% came from other sources.
- TaskThe overview starts with the line graph's trend and moves straight to the pie chart.
- TaskThe pie chart's main feature, still with no numbers.
- GrammarThe word before, followed by a noun phrase, joins two stages of the line in one sentence.
- VocabularyGives the size of the change as a multiple.
- CoherenceThe link sentence: the last point of the line becomes a share of the pie.
- VocabularyThe phrase by far shows how big the gap is between gas and every other source.
- VocabularyA share verb, used correctly for the pie chart.
Coloured text shows what the examiner is looking for.
Practice with Elita6 questions
Five questions on this task, then an overview of your own for two different charts.
An overview for both
Choose the overview that covers both charts.
Which sentence works as the overview?
Amount or share?
Choose the sentence that is correct for the pie chart.
Which sentence is correct?
Times as high
Use the line graph. Complete the sentence with one word or number.
In 2015, solar output was almost times as high as in 2010.
Write no more than 1 word.
Number or amount?
One of these sentences uses the wrong word for a quantity. Choose it.
Which sentence contains the error?
Which paragraph?
The report has an overview, a paragraph on the line graph and a paragraph on the pie chart. Where does this sentence belong?
Growth slowed over the next five years, with output reaching 19 TWh in 2020.
An overview of your own
Here are two different charts, described in words. Write their overview: two sentences that cover both charts, with no numbers.
A line graph shows the number of electric cars sold each year in one country: 2,000 in 2015, 9,000 in 2018, 30,000 in 2021 and 85,000 in 2024. A pie chart shows new car sales in 2024 by type: petrol 48%, electric 22%, hybrid 18%, diesel 12%. Write the overview.
0 / 30 words
Set up your learning path at the top of this lesson to get band-specific feedback.
Words to keep
Produce, especially electricity. The country generated 45 TWh from solar power in 2025.
Where something comes from. Natural gas was the largest source of electricity.
Make up a part of a total. Wind accounted for 15% of the total.
By a large amount. Gas was by far the largest source.
A way to compare two figures by multiplying. Output in 2025 was three times as high as in 2015.
What is left of a total. The remaining 12% came from other sources.
Before you go
Read both titles and units before any numbers: amounts in one chart, shares in the other.
Write one overview that says something about each chart, with no figures.
Give each chart its own paragraph, and join them with a sentence that shows how they connect.
Use amount words for the line graph and share words for the pie chart.
Next: Unit 10 ends here. Unit 11 is about food, and its first lesson covers the articles a, an and the.