English

# IELTS 3 Test 3 Task 1

The three bar charts give information respectively about the average number of years spent at school per person, the proportion of citizens who are scientists and technicians, and the amount of money allocated towards research and development, for two groups of countries worldwide – developing and developed – in 1980 and 1990.

It is readily apparent that developed nations enjoyed far higher levels of participation in all three categories of education and science and in both years shown than their developing nation counterparts, with the discrepancies between the two types of countries having widened significantly in the second decade.

For instance, in 1980, in countries with industrialised economies, citizens spent on average over 8 years at school, whereas, in underdeveloped countries, people were typically schooled for less than 3 years. By 1990, the average time spent at school had been extended by 2 years in developed countries, and only by half a year in non-developed countries. In more developed countries, a little over 4% of the population were working as either scientists or technicians, compared to around 1% in developing countries. These figures increased such that by 1990, it was 7% for industrialised countries, and around 1.8% for their less industrialised counterparts.

Funding for R&D had likewise risen in industrialised nations over the 10-year period from US$160 billion to US$350 billion – a more than two-fold increase. In contrast, however, the figure had plummeted for the average developing nation from around US$50 billion to US$25 billion.

(243 words)

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