Learner compares two figures with correct comparative structures, including the preposition that follows each.
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Spain 62%, Italy 41%. Tick every sentence you could write about that.
You already know the comparison words. The marks are lost on the word after them.
You already know higher, lower, similar, different. Nobody at Band 5 is short of comparison words.
What goes wrong is the small word that follows:
| structure | preposition |
|---|---|
| higher / lower | than |
| the same | as |
| similar | to |
| different | from |
| compared | with (or to) |
| the greatest / the smallest | of the group |
Six structures, six different words. There is no rule connecting them — they simply have to be learned as pairs.
The same two bars, described four different ways.
The bars never change. Only the small word in the middle of each sentence does.
Eight comparison words. Attach the right small word to each.
Terms
Definitions
Three decisions, each turning on how many things are being compared.
Chain 1
The data: two countries only — Spain 62%, Italy 41%.
Candidates: higher than / the highest of
The structure:
Because:
Chain 2
The data: four countries — Spain 62%, Italy 41%, Greece 39%, Portugal 28%.
Candidates: higher than / the highest of
The structure for Spain:
Because:
Chain 3
The data: Italy 41% and Greece 39% — almost identical.
Candidates: different from / similar to
The structure:
Because:
A Task 1 paragraph — four gaps want a comparison word, four want its preposition.
Households with home internet access, 2020 (%)
Spain 62 · Italy 41 · Greece 39 · Portugal 28
Spain recorded the figure of the four countries, at 62 per cent. This was considerably than the figure for Italy, which stood at 41 per cent.
The figures for Italy and Greece were very to one another — 41 and 39 per cent respectively, a gap of only two percentage points. Portugal, by contrast, was clearly different the other three, recording the figure at 28 per cent.
Compared Spain, Portugal's access rate was less than half. In other words, the figure Spain was more than twice high as the Portuguese one.