▶DECREASE◀
[intransitive] to decrease in quantity or importance 下降
Spending on information technology has declined. 在信息技术方面的支出在下降。
Car sales have declined by a quarter. 汽车的销售下降了25%。
After the war, the city declined in importance. 战后，该城市的重要性下降了。
▶SAY NO◀
[intransitive and transitive] formal to say no politely when someone invites you somewhere, offers you something, or wants you to do something 拒绝
Offered the position of chairman, Smith declined, preferring to keep his current job. 史密斯获得了董事长职位的提名，但是他拒绝了，还是想在原岗位工作。
Mary declined a hot drink and went to her room. 马丽不想喝热饮，直接进了自己的房间。
decline an offer/invitation etc
Mary declined Jay’s invitation to dinner. 玛丽拒绝了…共赴晚餐的邀请。
decline to do something
The court declined to review her case. 法庭拒绝再次审理她的案件。
The minister declined to comment (=refused to speak to people who report the news) about the progress of the peace talks. 部长拒绝对和平进程事宜发表任何评论。
▶BECOME WORSE◀ [intransitive] to become gradually worse in quality 质量下降 ￚ同义词 deteriorate
Her health has been declining progressively for several months.她的健康状况在这几个月里逐步下降。
Qualified staff are leaving and standards are declining. 有水平的员工逐渐离开，工作的质量在下降。
ￚdeclining adjective
declining attendance at baseball games 棒球观众人数下降
3. Language.
Adjectives:
typical, upward, sharp, current, strong, recent
Adverbs:
fairly, predictably, finally
Verbs:
going, took off, soaring, fallen, panic, doubled, peaking, has collapsed
Nouns:
trend, gains, level, losses, recovery, value
Prepositions with time phrases:
over the last twelve months, in the first six months, by December last year, in January, by February/May, in the last four weeks
Prepositions with figures:
from, to almost/over, at nearly/just over, by nearly, down almost
u Before we start to describe the movement of the share prices, we should at least know the basic vocabulary and structures needed.
(I) There are two basic sentence patterns to describe the trend.
1. It increased sharply from January to April.
主语 + 表示趋势的动词 + 副词 + 时间状语。
2. It showed a small increase from January to April.
There was a slight increase from January to April.
From January to February, there has been a moderate decline in sales.
(形式)主语 + 动词 + 形容词 + 表示趋势的名词 + 时间状语。
(II) Verbs and Nouns to describe the movement
There are only three kinds of movement, namely, upward trend, downward trend and not changing at all. Now let’s take it in turns to look at it.
Upward trend
Verbs to show increase
一般意义的上升
2 to go up
2 to rise
2 to increase
2 to climb
2 to grow
2 to exceed
2 to overtake
急剧上涨
2 to jump
2 to shoot up
2 to rocket
2 to surge
2 to soar
2 to take off
在境况不好的情况下改善
2 to improve v.改善
2 to recover v. 恢复
2 to pick up
上升到极值
2 to peak v. 到达顶峰
2 to reach a peak 到达顶峰
surge verb [intransitive]
to suddenly increase
ￚsynonym shoot up
Oil prices surged.
However, in some cases, if you simply know the basic form of a verb, you may not write a successful passage. Sometimes you must write the movement all in the past tense because the share prices were all in the period in the past. So in the following, there is a list of the past tense and past participle for the verbs meaning upward trend.
2 go ---went; gone
2 rise---rose; risen
2 increase ---increased; increased
2 climb ---climbed; climbed
2 grow --- grew; grown
2 exceed ---exceeded; exceeded
2 overtake --- overtook, overtaken
2 jump --- jumped; jumped
2 shoot ---shot; shot
2 surge --- surged, surged
2 soar---soared; soared
2 take off --- took; taken
2 rocket --- rocketed; rocketed
2 improve --- improved; improved
2 recover --- recovered; recovered
2 pick up--- picked; picked
2 peak---peaked; peaked
2 reach---reached; reached
Nouns to show increase
In the second sentence pattern, you need to use nouns to show increase. So the following is the list of nouns to show increase.
2 a rise
2 an increase
2 growth
2 an improvement
2 a recovery
2 reach a peak
2 a jump
2 a surge
2 Downward Trend
Verbs to show decrease
一般意义的下降
2 to go down
2 to fall
2 to decrease
2 to drop
2 to decline
2 to dip
2 to slide
2 to reach a trough (降到谷地)
2 to reduce (v. 减少)
降到极值
2 to reach to trough
2 to hit/fall to the lowest point
2 to bottom out降到最低点，停止下降并即将回升
急剧下降
2 to plunge
2 to plummet
2 to collapse
2 to dive
bottom verb
bottom out phrasal verb
if a situation, price etc bottoms out, it stops getting worse or lower, usually before improving again
There are signs that the recession has bottomed out.
dive verb[intransitive]
past tense dived also dove AmE, past participle dived
▶NUMBERS◀
if numbers, prices etc dive, they suddenly become much lower than before
The dollar dived against the yen in Tokyo today.
The following is the list of words in their past tense and past participle.
2 to go ---went; gone
2 to fall---fell; fallen
2 to decrease---decreased; decreased
2 to drop---dropped; dropped
2 to decline---declined; declined
2 to dip---dipped; dipped
2 to reduce --- reduced; reduced
2 to slide --- slid, slid
2 to reach--- reached, reached
2 to hit --- hit, hit
2 to bottom --- bottomed, bottomed
2 to plunge--- plunged, plunged
2 to collapse --- collapsed, collapsed
2 to dive --- dived, dived
Nouns to show decrease
2 a fall
2 a decrease
2 a decline
2 a drop
2 a dip
2 reduction: e.g. to see further reduction
2 a collapse
3 verbs or verb phrases to show stable
2 remain the same
2 remain constant (adj. 不变的)
2 remain stable (adj. 不变的)
2 remain steady (adj. 平稳的)
2 remain unchanged
2 show little change
2 level off 稳定下来 (过去式： levelled off)
(III) Adjectives and adverbs
Even when the trend is the same, the speed and expansion may not be the same. So we need adjectives and adverbs to describe the trend.
We use adverbs to qualify a verb (see sentence pattern 1) and adjectives to qualify a noun(see sentence pattern 2).
1. It increased sharply from January to April.
主语 + 表示趋势的动词 + 副词 + 时间状语。
2. It showed a small increase from January to April.
There was a slight increase from January to April.
(形式)主语 + 动词 + 形容词 + 表示趋势的名词 + 时间状语。
Therefore, we take a look at the list of adjectives and adverbs to quality the movement.
形容词副词
steady 稳定的
The sales of computers showed a steady increase in the past quarter.steadily 稳定地
The sales of computers increased steadily in the past quarter.
gradual 渐渐的
gradually 渐渐地
slight 微微的
The production of timber showed a slight fall in the past quarter.slightly 微微地
The production of timber fell slightly.
Gentle微微的Gently微微地
slow 慢慢的 (频度词汇)
It showed a slow growth.slowly 慢慢地 (频度词汇)
It grew slowly.
considerable 相当的
considerably 相当地
noticeable 明显的
noticeably 明显地
Marked 明显的Markedly 明显地
sharp 急剧的
sharply 急剧地
significant 巨大的
significantly 巨大地
dramatic 戏剧性的，巨大的
dramatically 戏剧性地;巨大地
substantial 巨大的
substantially 巨大地
enormous 巨大的
enormously 巨大地
rapid 快的 (频度词汇)
rapidly 快地 (频度词汇)
(IV) Incorporating more data
Actually when we need a thorough description of the trend, we should include the figures or data into our description. So we should use the following prepositions.
l 当我们要描述从…上升(下降)到…，我们可以使用介词from…to…。比如：
The sales of computers improved from 25 units to 30 units.
The enrollment dipped from 39 students in November to 20 students in December.
l 当我们要描述变化的幅度时，我们用介词by或of。比如：
The sales of computers rose from 25 units to 30 units. The sales rose by 5 units.
电脑的销售从25台增长到30台，增长了5台。(表示趋势的动词 + by)
The sales of computers rose from 25 units to 30 units. They showed an increase of 5 units.
电脑的销售从25台增长到30台，增长了5台。(表示趋势的名词 + of)
l 当我们要描述一组数据的起点、最高点以及终点时，应该使用介词at。
It started at 2.
It peaked at 10.
It finished at 2.
Prepositions with figures:
from, to almost/over, at nearly/just over, by nearly, down almost
(V) Approximation
When you describe a line graph or a bar chart, you cannot really find the exact figures. So you should use the following words to demonstrate your accuracy on description.
just under
well under
just over
well over roughly
nearly
approximately
around
about
Prepositions with figures:
from, to almost/over, at nearly/just over, by nearly, down almost
(VI) Describing trends
From the graph in the textbook, we can see that the graph has a lot of changes within a period of time. So in this case, you should grasp the main trends. Study the graphs and language below.
(VII) Time
Between 1980and1990…
In 1980…
Since 1980…
over the last twelve months
in the first six months
by December last year
in January
(VIII) Comparison
In 198039% of rural dwellers had drinking waterscompared with 50% in 1990.
whereas in 1990 50% had it.
More
Fewer urban
ruraldwellers have a water supply thanrural
urbandwellers.
(XI) Tense to be used
when you start to describe the graph, you should first look at the time period. In most cases, the graph is drawn according the past figures. However, some graphs collect data according the speculation. So then you should use the simple future tense. Alternatively, the graph may relate to the present figures. Therefore, you should use the present perfect tense to illustrate the graph.
一般过去时
Between 1980 and 1990, the number of tourists rose steadily.
一般过去时
In 1980, most people bought goods from small shops.
现在完成时
Since the year 2000, most people have bought goods from large supermarkets in the immediate locality.
一般将来时
In the years to come, people are bound to buy things from home via the Internet.
过去完成时
By December last year, the share price had fallen sharply.
Checklist
l Describing trends
l Describing increase and decrease
l Incorporating data
l Using approximations
l Writing appropriate and varied sentence patterns
l Writing about varied time periods.
Similarity and differences (page 20)
Writing:
Sample answer:
The share prices of both IBM and AOL showed a general upward trend from June until the end of 1998. However, while AOL shares then continued to rise steadily over the next three months, the price of IBM shares fell slightly. By March 1999 both shares were worth about $100.
AOL shares then shot up, almost doubling in value within four weeks. They reached high of $180 in mid-April before collapsing to just over $100 per share at the beginning of May. There was a slight recovery during that month however, despite this, by June 1999 the price of AOL shares was once again about $100. In contrast, despite minor fluctuations, IBM shares made a steady recovery over the three-month period, finishing at just over $100, almost equal to AOL.
