General English Level 5 V 3
UNIT 04 Crime and punishment TOPIC 04 Crime facts and opinions
LANGUAGE FOCUS 02 Understanding bar graphs
The newspaper article says:
… [Australia] … has a rate of more than 700 per 100,000 people …

We use more than and less than to compare different rates.

The newspaper article says:
The USA … has the highest rate of murder with a rate of 6.51 per 100,000 people…
[The USA's rate of murder] is higher than both Canada's and Australia's.

We can use the words higher and the highest to compare the different rates in the graph.

The newspaper article says:
Rates of robbery are also substantially higher in the USA … followed by Australia … then Canada.

We can also use followed by and then to compare rates, starting with the highest, then mentioning the next highest and so on.


The rate of motor vehicle theft is higher in Australia than in Canada.
Rates of theft are highest in London, followed by Glasgow, then Manchester.

New Zealand has a rate of more than 900 per 100,000 people.
The newspaper article says:
This means you are more likely to be murdered in the USA but less likely to be assaulted or robbed there!

We can use more likely and less likely to talk about the chances of something happening, based on the statistics we see in the graph.

Examples

New York has the highest rate of traffic offences.
The rate of crime in Tokyo is higher than the rate in Seoul.
Rates of armed robbery are highest in Sydney, followed by Melbourne.
Canada's rate of motor vehicle theft is more than 500 per 100,000 people.
You are more likely to be mugged on the streets at night than during the day.

The newspaper article says:
Rates of robbery are also substantially higher in the USA …

We can use words like substantially to describe the word higher . We call this a modifier . Other modifiers are considerably , significantly and slightly .

Examples

The crime rate is considerably higher in New York than in Montreal.
The rate is significantly higher than in Boston.
The accident rate was slightly higher than in 1998.

Now go to 03 READING Crime facts and figures - task.