IELTS Examiner / Practice Prompt Bank — GT & Academic / Academic Task 1
IELTS Academic Task 1: Bar Chart — Money & spending
Original practice prompt written in exam style — not a real exam question, and not a prediction.
The chart below compares average monthly household spending in two countries. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. The data is as follows (average spending per household per month, in US dollars). Rent: $1,800 in the United States and $1,200 in Japan. Food: $600 in the US and $550 in Japan. Transport: $300 in the US and $180 in Japan. Entertainment: $250 in the US and $200 in Japan. Spending in the US is higher in all four categories; the biggest difference is in rent, where US households spend $600 more per month, while the smallest gap is for food, at $50.
Examiner focus: Same order of categories in both countries, different scale — lead with rent dominating both budgets and the US premium shrinking by category.
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