Band 6+: WRITING TASK 1 You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. The two line graphs below show New Zealand import figures from Australia and Japan in the years 1994 - 2004. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. You should write at least 150 words.

The two charts illustrates the amount of money New Zealand spent on imports from Australia and Japan in millions of dollars. The data’s time frame is from 1994 to 2004.

Overall shipments from Australia experienced an increase while imports from Japan decreased slightly. However the figures fluctuated dramatically during the 10 year period.

In 1994 New Zealand bought 4 billion dollars of goods from Australia, this number then increased to a peak of about 6.5 billion in 1996, before dropping to just 3 billion in 1999. A similar pattern followed in the subsequent years with imports fluctuating between 3 and 7.5 billion dollars. In 2004 imports were at an all time high point of 8 billlion dollars.

Shipments from Japan followed a similar trajectory with the one’s from Australia, starting at 3 billion dollars in 1994 and increasing to a peak of about 6.5 billions in 1997. However, in contrast with the growth experienced by Australia’s imports, the amount of money flowing to Japan experienced an almost constant decline from 1997 to 2004. The only outlier can be found in the year 2000, where there was a sudden jump of 2 billion dollars, however the downward trend continued bringing the final figure to only 2 billion dollars.