Band 8.5 model answer
A model answer written to illustrate a Band 8.5 response to this question, with the rubric breakdown and what carries it. Written by us as a teaching example, not a verified exam script.
“The line graph shows CO2 emissions per capita in four countries from 1990 to 2020.”8.5
Overall
8.5
Task response
9
Coherence & cohesion
8
Lexical resource
9
Grammar
The line graph illustrates CO2 emissions per person in four countries, measured in tonnes per person, between 1990 and 2020.
Overall, emissions fell in the USA, Germany and the UK across the period, whereas China's figure rose sharply and had overtaken the UK and Germany by 2020. The USA remained the highest emitter throughout, while China climbed from the lowest position to become the second highest by the end.
In 1990 the USA recorded by far the highest emissions at 20 tonnes per person, edging up to 21 tonnes by 2000 before declining steadily to 13.5 tonnes in 2020. Germany and the UK followed a similar downward path: Germany fell from 12.7 to 7.7 tonnes, while the UK dropped more steeply, from 10.2 to 4.8 tonnes, ending the period as the lowest of the four.
China, by contrast, began at just 2.1 tonnes per person in 1990 and climbed consistently, surging to 6.8 tonnes by 2010, then to 8.5 tonnes in 2020. This trajectory meant that China overtook the UK somewhere around 2010 and overtook Germany by approximately 2015. Germany itself showed a modest recovery between 2015 and 2020, stabilising around 7.7 tonnes rather than continuing to fall.
- •Clear overview identifying the diverging trends and the key crossover without resorting to figures.
- •Accurately tracks start, peak and end values for all four series and correctly identifies the crossing points.
- •Strong trend lexis: 'climbing consistently', 'surging', 'dropped more steeply', 'stabilising'.
- •Varied comparison language across paragraphs: 'whereas', 'by contrast', 'while', 'rather than'.
- •One additional intermediate value for Germany in the early decline would make the middle-period description marginally richer.
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