Vocabulary

Learn to use proper words

Topic:

Describing trends and tendencies

A trend –a gradual change or development that produces a particular result: recent / general / current / present / latest trend: If current trends continue, the earth will be considerably warmer in fifty years. Alarming / worrying / disturbing / growing / increasing / rising / downward / upward / long-term trend: Today’s figures continue the upward trend in stock market.

A tendency :

a) if someone or something has a tendency to do or become a particular thing, they are likely to do or become it: a tendency to do sth, a tendency to/towards, a tendency for: Greg’s tendency to be critical made him unpopular among his co-workers. Researchers believe that a tendency for diabetes is present at birth.

b) a general change or development in a particular direction: there is a tendency (for sb) to do sth, a tendency among: There is an increased tendency among women to build an impressive career in business.

V1. There are a lot of verbs and nouns describing changes in size, number, price, value etc. Find the verbs that indicate an upward, downward or horizontal movement:

to fall	to grow	to triple
to climb	to decrease	to go down
to deteriorate	to drop	to improve
to rise	to remain stable	to increase
to even out	to reduce	to diminish
to degrade	to go up	to expand
to decline	to accelerate	to double
to plunge/plummet	to halve	to soar

a) Which verbs can be changed into nouns?

e.g. to fall - a fall

to improve - an improvement

b) The rate and degree of change can be described by adjectives and adverbs. (The adjective describes a noun: a rapid growth, the adverb describes the verb: grows rapidly).

The rate of change: rapid, slow, sudden, sharp, steady, gradual, fast.

The degree of change: noticeable, substantial, considerable, significant, slight, dramatic, negligible, moderate.

c) Apply various prepositions when describing trends and tendencies:

Sales have increased from $5 million to $7 million.

Profits rose by 15% to $5.6 billiard

Our business grew by 8% last year.

There has been an increase of $5 million in our sales.

Sales now stand at $2.3 million.

V2. Describe the rate and size of change observed:

Example 1. The gradual rise of global average temperatures leads to melting glaciers. Scientists point out that the global average temperatures raise gradually. Lately the number of articles about global warming published in various journals has grown significantly.

Example 2. World population has more than doubled in 50 years, from 2.5 billions in 1950 to 6.1 billions in 2000. World population has increased by 3.6 billions in 50 years. The rate of population growth in the world increases drastically.

V3. Complete the sentences with the prepositions: of, per, at, by, from…to.

1. In September profits stood … 2.5 million euros.

2. There was a decrease … 3 million tons … in our production during the last year.

3. There has been a drop … 5 degrees. The temperature dropped … 5 degrees.

4. The population is expected to grow exponentially over the next few years and then peak … 20 billion people.

5. Our production has fallen down … 50 units … day … 20 units.

6. In the first decade the population remained steady … approximately 5 million. Next decade it grew … 5.6 million.