如何用英语讨论各种数据图表？

Line Charts and Graphs

Bar Charts and Graphs

Pie Charts

Exploded Pie Charts

Line charts and bar charts have a vertical axis and a horizontal axis. Each axis is labeled to indicate what type of information it contains. Typical information included on vertical and horizontal axis include:

age - how old

weight - how heavy

height - how tall

date - which day, month, year, etc.

time - how much time is required

length - how long

width - how wide

degrees - how hot or cold

percentage - a portion of 100%

number - number

duration - the length of time required

There are a number of specific words and phrases used to describe and discuss graphs and charts. This vocabulary is especially important when presenting to groups of people. Much of the language of graphs and charts relates to movement. In other words, the language of graphs and charts often speaks of small or large movement or differences between various data points. Refer to this language of graphs and charts to help improve your ability to speak about graphs and charts.

The following list the verb and noun used to speak about positive and negative movements, as well as predictions. Example sentences are found after each section.

Positive

to climb - a climb

to ascend - an ascent

to rise - a rise

to improve - an improvement

to recover - a recover

to increase - an increase

Sales have climbed over the past two quarters.

We've experienced a rise in consumer demand.

Consumer confidence recovered in the second quarter.

There has been an increase of 23% since June.

Have you seen any improvement in customer satisfaction?

Negative

to fall - a fall

to decline - a decline

to plunge - a plunge

to decrease - a decrease

to worsen - a slip

to deteriorate - a dip

Research and development spending has fallen by 30% since January.

Unfortunately, we've seen a decline over the past three months.

As you can see, sales have plunged in the northwest region.

Government spending has decreased by 10% over the past two years.

There's been a slip in profits this past quarter.

Comedy book sales have deteriorated for three quarters.

Predicting Future Movement

to project - a projection

to forecast - a forecast

to predict - a prediction

We project improved sales in the coming months.

As you can see from the chart, we forecast increased research and development spending next year.

We predict improving sales through June.

This list provides adjectives and adverbs used to describe how quickly, slowly, extremely, etc. something moves. Each adjective/adverb pair includes a definition and an example sentence.

slight - slightly = insignificant

There's been a slight decline in sales.

Sales have declined slightly over the past two months.

sharp - sharply = quick, large movement

Investment rose sharply during the first quarter.

We made a sharp increase in investment.

abrupt - abruptly = sudden change

Sales dropped abruptly in March.

There was an abrupt drop in sales in March.

rapid - rapidly = quick, very fast

We expanded rapidly throughout Canada.

The company made a rapid expansion throughout Canada.

sudden - suddenly = without warning

Unfortunately, consumer interest suddenly decreased.

There was a sudden decrease in consumer interest in January.

dramatic - dramatically = extreme, very big

We've dramatically improved customer satisfaction over the past six months.

As you can see from the chart, the dramatic growth has come after we invested in a new product line.

calm - calmly = evenly, without much change

The markets have reacted calmly to recent developments.

As you can see from the graph, consumers have been calm over the past few months.

flat = without change

Profit has been flat over the past two years.

steady - steadily = no change

There has been a steady improvement over the past three months.

Sales have improved steadily since March.