Which ones indicate a large difference and which ones indicate a small difference? Group them into two categories as shown below:

Large difference: considerably…

Small difference: slightly…

v Task 3.5. Vocabulary work. Match the adjectives and their definitions.

1. gradual	a. happening quickly and unexpectedly
2. sudden	b. a change or difference that is very obvious and easily noticed
3. marked	c. a change or process that occurs in small stages over a long period of time
4. steady	d. something that happens all the time or always there
5. constant	e. a change which continues or develops gradually without any interruptions

v Task 3.6. Writing skills. Using suitable vocabulary from tasks 3.3 – 3.5, describe in a written form two graphs from the original article “Coral Bleaching” ( https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/10/great-barrier-reef-terminal-stage-australia-scientists-despair-latest-coral-bleaching-data ).

Tips from IELTS Guide:

Do not describe every small upwards or downwards movement. You need to look at the important trends or characteristics and give a general overview.

You will normally use verbs in the past tense when describing trends though always look for dates to confirm which tense to use.

Do not write about things that do not appear in the graph. You shouldn't give an opinion, just describe the information that appears.

Figure 1. Decline of coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef

The decline of coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef due to crown-of-thorns starfish, cyclones, and bleaching

< -- Image 29 -->

Figure 2. Sea surface temperature anomaly, Great Barrier Reef

Sea surface temperature departure* from the 1961-1990 average

< -- Image 30 -- >

* “Departure” here means deviation.

Work with Vocabulary of Unit 5

Instructions to the task see in Unit 1, p…

Noun	adjective	verb	adverb
		absorb
Acidification
Blanket
	Blazing
Bleaching
Cloak
	Consecutive
Conservation
			Considerably
	constant
Dawn
		Decline
		decrease
Dense
Deforestation
	despondent
			Dramatically
		Drop
Equilibrium
		Expand
		fall
	gradual
		Grow
	Habitable
	hefty
Implication
		Increase
	infrared
jeopardy
			Marginally
	marked
		Modify
			Noticeably
proximity
	ranging
		refer
		Release
resilience
		Rise
	Scorching
severity	severe
			Sharply
			Significantly
			Slightly
			Somewhat
	steady
	sudden
Surface
		Trap
	ultraviolet
	unchecked
	unscathed
Vapour
woe

Phrasal structures

1. Black List

2. fossil fuels

Red List

4. to a small degree

APPENDIX

I. STYLE, VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR

Section 1. Academic Style

A. Linking adjuncts

Linking adjuncts are a large class which includes single-word and phrasal items.

The use of linking adjuncts is important in academic language, especially writing, to give coherence to the text and organize it.

The following occur frequently in academic contexts:

1. Additive (adding further ideas):

Above all

Additionally / in addition

Also

As well

Besides

Equally

Furthermore

Likewise

Moreover

Similarly

2. Resultative (expressing causes, reasons, results, consequences):

Accordingly

As a consequence

As a result

Consequently

Hence

In consequence

In (the) light of this (that)

In view of this (that)

Then

Therefore

Thus

Contrastive: (contrasting, opposing)

Alternatively

At the same time

By/in contrast

Conversely

However

Instead

Meanwhile

Nevertheless

Nonetheless

On the contrary

On the other hand

Otherwise

13. Rather (used to contrast clause in one sentence)

Listing

Finally

First of all

Firstly/ Secondly / thirdly

In the first/second place

Last of all

Next

7. On the one hand … on the other hand

5. Summative:

In brief

In conclusion/to conclude

In its (their) turn

In short

In sum/to sum up/summing up

In summary

Overall

Respectively

Subsequently

Therefore

To summarize

Source: Ronald Carter, Michael McCarthy. Cambridge Grammar of English. A Comprehensive Guide. / Cambridge University Press, 2013. 973 p.

B. Hedging

Academic texts are often characterized by a desire to avoid making claims and statements that are too direct and assertive, since the nature of academic discussions is more about theories, exchanging viewpoints rather than about indisputable facts. Therefore, hedging (making a proposition less assertive) is very important in academic styles.

For hedging, one may employ different techniques. One way is to use modal verbs. Also, certain adverbs can be used, as well as prepositional structures, impersonal constructions and clauses with Complex Subject.

1. Modal verbs, used to make statements less assertive:

Can

Can is often used to make fairly confident, but not absolute assertions:

“Genetic mutations, infection by parasites or symbionts, and other events can transform the way that an organism’s internal state changes in response to a given environment.”

Could and might

These verbs are used for more tentative assertions:

“In some cases, the disadvantageous effects of these events could be reduced or neutralized”.

“An argument is then made as to why we might expect interoceptive behaviour to be more robust to organisational-transformations than exteroceptive behaviour.”

May

“May” describes things which are likely to occur or which normally do occur. In this usage it is a formal equivalent of “can”:

“Increased coverage on the upper back may result from self-directed rubbing against other anointing individuals that may be a secondary source of material”.

“May” is also widely used in a more general way in academic texts to make a proposition more tentative. “ May” is less tentative than “could” or “might”:

· “The social anointing behaviours in capuchin monkeys may have lead to the formulation of the social bonding hypotheses for the function of anointing in the species.”

· “They may well be explained in terms of innate behaviours”.

Would

“Would” is frequently used to hedge assertions, which may be challenged when it precedes such verbs as “advocate”, “argue”, “assume”, “claim”, “expect”, “propose”, “suggest”.

· “Since the behaviour must be costly, we would expect it to provide significant benefits to the subjects.”

· “This would suggest that birds that did not receive a reward in the previous successful cooperation trial, are less motivated to cooperate again.”

Adverbs for hedging

Apparently

Arguably

Evidently

Frequently

Generally

Likely

Normally

Partially

Probably

Roughly

Seemingly

Surely

Typically

Usually

· “We found that anointing generally occurred with little aggression in our study groups.“

· „Bouts in our groups typically included salivating and tail coiling, behaviours previously only observed in anointing Cebus”.