IELTS Task 1 Grammar: Tenses, Comparisons, the Passive and Relative Clauses (Part 3 of 5): Relative and Participle Clauses

✓ Good: Musical performances, which did not have any attenders before 2005, experienced a steady growth and finished the period at approximately 17.

(Task 29) A non-defining which clause sits after the subject, followed by two verbs. Participants would be more natural than attenders.

✓ Good: As regards Nickel, it began at 6% increase in January, after which the increase dropped dramatically to about 1% and then levelled off in March and April.

(Task 8) after which links three stages of the trend in one sentence. (For how to fix began at 6% increase, see section 6, in Part 4.)

✓ Good: Regarding the households in Britain, other goods and services were a predominant factor on family’s spending with 36%, followed by food, accounting for 22%.

(Task 14) followed by + accounting for covers first and second place in one go.

✓ Good: Finally, the labels are put on the outside-part of those cups, completing the production of instant noodles.

(Task 13) Ending with the participle completing is a good way to write the last step of a process. outside-part should simply be outside.

✗ Original: Moving to the remaining three activities, the number of people chose table tennis was between roughly 17 and 19 before 2010 …

→ Revised: … the number of people who chose table tennis … / … the number of people choosing table tennis …

(Task 29) A clause can have only one main verb. Was is already the main verb, so chose must become who chose or choosing. households earn around in Task 5 and students speak German in Task 11 are the same mistake.

✗ Original: In 2010, total satisfactory rate witnessed a dramatic upward trend, with 28% of customers felt excellent and 39% of them believed it was good.

→ Revised: … with 28% of guests rating the service as excellent and 39% describing it as good.

(Task 27) with + noun must be followed by an -ing form, a past participle or a prepositional phrase, never a past-tense verb. with Italia reached in Task 40 and with 40% said in Task 47 are the same mistake.

✗ Original: In the sixth stage, the watched plastic pieces are put into a machine which a number of plastic pellets are produced.

→ Revised: In the sixth stage, the washed plastic pieces are fed into a machine in which they are made into pellets.

(Task 9) The clause after which is a complete sentence (pellets are produced), so which needs a preposition: in which / where. watched is a misspelling of washed.

✗ Original: Regarding open date, most cities started to have underground railway system after 1900, except London, a city that underground system opened in 1863.

→ Revised: … except London, whose underground system opened in 1863.

(Task 22) “Its underground system” is possessive, so use whose.

✗ Original: Looking first at the map now, a main road goes through from west to east, which a number of shops are built surrounds the main road.

→ Revised: At present, a main road runs from west to east and is lined with shops on both sides.

(Task 46) Two verbs (are built, surrounds) are crammed in after which, and the sentence structure collapses. In cases like this, do not force a relative clause; two coordinated verbs are clearest.

✗ Original: By adding the water and oil to the stored flour in the mixer, dough sheets are made, which then pass through the rollers.

→ Revised: In the mixer, water and oil are added to the flour to make dough, which is then rolled into sheets.

(Task 13) The subject of By adding is a person, but the subject of the main clause is dough sheets, so the dough sheets end up adding the water themselves. In processes the subjects are things, so it is best to avoid opening with By + -ing.

✗ Original: Successfully going through grids and being placed on specific rollers, the raw materials are made.

→ Revised: The clay is passed through a metal grid and carried along on a roller.

(Task 26) The subject of the participles should be the clay, but the main clause has raw materials, and in fact the diagram shows no step where raw materials are “made” at this point.