Task 1 Academic · Process diagram · Environment
The life cycle of the dragonfly
A nine-stage natural cycle drawn as an even circle, where the time spent in each stage is anything but even.
The question
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.
The diagram below shows the life cycle of the dragonfly.
- 1An adult female lays her eggs on the stems of water plants or directly into the water.
- 2The eggs hatch after two to five weeks.
- 3A nymph emerges and lives underwater, feeding on small insects and tadpoles.
- 4Over one to three years the nymph grows, shedding its skin between 8 and 15 times.
- 5The fully grown nymph climbs out of the water up a plant stem.
- 6Its skin splits along the back and the adult dragonfly pulls itself out.
- 7The adult pumps fluid into its wings, which expand and dry for about an hour before it can fly.
- 8The adult lives for four to eight weeks, hunting insects in the air.
- 9Adults mate over water and the female lays eggs, beginning the cycle again.
A 150-word factual summary of a graph, chart, table, process or map. This prompt is original, written in the standard format for teaching purposes — it is not taken from any past paper.
What separates the three answers
The diagram is a circle but the time on it is lopsided — years underwater, weeks in the air — and only the band 9 answer makes that imbalance the point of its overview.
The three answers
Band 6.5
178 words (the task asks for at least 150)The answer works. It addresses the task, the reader follows it, and the meaning survives — but ideas stay general, linking is mechanical, wording repeats, and small errors are visible throughout.
The answer
The diagram shows the life cycle of the dragonfly, which is from the egg to the adult2.
First, the female dragonfly lays her eggs on the plants in the water or in the water directly. Then after two to five weeks the eggs hatch and a nymph comes out. The nymph lives under the water and it eats small insects and tadpoles.
Then the nymph grows for one to three years, and during this time it changes its skin between 8 and 15 times. Then when it is fully grown it climbs out of the water on a stem of plant.3 Then its skin splits along its back and the adult dragonfly comes out from it.
After that, the adult pumps fluid into its wings and waits about one hour until the wings are dry, and then it can fly. The adult lives only for four to eight weeks and it hunts in the air. Finally the adults mate on the water4 and the female lays eggs again.
Overall, the dragonfly has many stages in its life cycle.1
What an examiner notices
1. Task achievement
“Overall, the dragonfly has many stages in its life cycle.”
No number of stages, no mention that the cycle repeats, and nothing about the long nymph stage compared with the short adult life — the three things this overview needed.
2. Task achievement
“which is from the egg to the adult”
This describes a straight line from start to finish. The diagram is a cycle: the adult lays the eggs that start it again.
3. Coherence and cohesion
“Then when it is fully grown it climbs out of the water on a stem of plant.”
The fourth sentence to begin with 'Then', and the most important transition in the cycle is marked the same way as every other step.
4. Grammatical range and accuracy
“Finally the adults mate on the water”
Dragonflies mate in the air above the water, which is what 'over' expresses. 'On' puts them on the surface.
One honest caveat
Band labels here describe what each piece of writing demonstrates against the four published assessment areas, paraphrased in plain language. They are teaching illustrations produced for this site, not official material, and no sample has been marked by a test provider. Real scripts are marked whole; two answers with the same label can still look quite different from each other, and nothing on this page can promise anyone a particular result.
Compare another question
- Task 1 Academic · Process diagram
How coffee is produced
A strictly linear process that also splits geographically, and three answers that differ in whether they notice the split at all.
- Task 1 Academic · Process diagram
How glass bottles are recycled
A ten-stage recycling process, and a lesson in why a process answer is scored on grouping and passive voice rather than on retelling the arrows.
- Task 1 Academic · Process diagram
How potato crisps are manufactured
A twelve-stage factory process in which half the work happens before any oil is used — and only the strongest answer explains why the order matters.