» You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The two graphs show the main sources of energy in the USA in the 1980s and the 1990s.
Write a report for a university lecturer describing the changes which occurred.
» Write at least 150 words.
Sources of Energy, USA, in the 1980s and 1990s.
Sample Answer 1
The pie chart depicts the use of different sources of energy in the USA in two decades – 1980s and 1990s. An overview of the diagram shows that the major source of energy in the USA was oil in both decades, and the use of nuclear power as a source of energy doubled in just ten years.
The graphs show that oil was the main energy source for the USA which was used to produce 42% energy in the 1980s and 33% in 1990s. It shows that oil produced energy declined in 1990. Around one-fourth of energy in the USA came from natural gas both in these decades. The use of nuclear power as a source of energy increases and it produced 10% energy in the 1990s which was double than the percentage of energy production from this source in the previous decade. The production of energy from coal in the 1980s was around 22% and it increases by 5% in 1990s. It is very surprising to notice that the production of energy from hydroelectric power remained the same (i.e. 5%) in both decades.
[Written by – Reshma]
Sample Answer 2
The given pie charts show data on the main energy sources in the United States of America in two decades. As is presented in the pie charts, oil was the main energy source for the USA both in the 80s and 90s but the use of oil and coal had reduced and their places as energy sources were somewhat replaced by the use of nuclear power in the USA.
According to the given data, oil was the main energy source in the USA which was 42% in 1980. The second-largest energy source in this decade was the natural gas which supplied 26% of total energy in the same period. Then coal supplied more than 20 per cent energy demand in the USA while hydroelectric power and Nuclear power both supplied 5% of the total energy.
In the next decade, Nuclear power produced one-tenth of total energy demand and that was almost double that it was in the previous decade. The hydroelectric power as an energy source remained unchanged as it provided 5% of total energy demand in this decade also. The two other main sources of energy in the USA remained almost unchanged in this decade and those two sources were Coal and Natural Gas. Finally, the use of oil as an energy source reduced to 33%, which is almost 10% less than the previous decade but remained the largest source albeit the reduction in this 90s decade.