Page 29 - IELTS Academic Writing Task 1: The Ultimate Guide with Practice to Get a Target Band Score of 8.0+ In 10 Minutes a Day

afterward it stood at, then it stood at”, then it stood at, then it stood at something
else). “Stood at” works for anything on the graph.

The number of sales stood at 4 million in 2010.

The number of people travelling to London stood at 26 million in 2005.

Started at/ began at

You can use “started at/ began at” at the beginning.

In 2000, the figure for Internet users started at approximately 50 million.

The amount of meat consumed weekly began at about 150 grams.

Ended at/ finished at

You can use “ended at/ finished at” at the end.

The figure finished at over 50%.

Dipped/decreased slightly

Expenditure on furniture dipped slightly from 9% to 7% between 2002 and 2005.

Coffee sales decreased slightly between June and August.

Examples:

Coffee sales began at 50 thousand dollars, then decreased slightly to 48 thousand
dollars. Subsequently, sales plunged and reached a low of 40 thousand dollars
between June and August. Afterwards, coffee sales rocketed to a high of 70 thousand

dollars. Sales remained stable before decreasing and stabilizing at…

Started at a high…then it fell slightly/declined slightly/ dropped slightly/ fell
steadily/declined gradually…then it levelled off/ stabilized/ remained unchanged/

remained stable/ remained the same/ maintained the same figure.

Sales soared/rocketed/rose dramatically/grew sharply/increased substantially.

“Soared” really is the same as “rocketed”.

Increased slightly/increased gradually.

The number of people using the Internet increased slightly between 1995 and 2005.

From 2002 to 2004, CD sales in the UK increased gradually from 3 to 4 million - a