IELTS Writing Task 1: paraphrasing examples

Here are my suggestions for the paraphrasing exercise that I gave you last Thursday. Notice that I try to keep my paraphrasing quite simple.
a

1. consumer spending on five different products =
   the amount of money that people spent on five items
   
   
2. the consumption of rice and pasta in three European countries =
   the amounts of rice and pasta that people in (name the countries) eat
   
   
3. changes in the cost of renting a home between 2009 and 2019 =
   information about residential rental prices over a 10-year period
   
   
4. the market share percentage of four UK electricity suppliers =
   the proportion of the UK electricity market served by (four names)

Comments

[Yang]

Simon,

I'm a beginner of your blog and I really enjoy your lesson.

I think the noun phrases "consumer spending on five different products" doesn't mean "the amount of money that people spent on five items"

As a result of the subject is consumer, we need to rewrite with the same subject.

ex.
-people consuming five items
-those who buy five different products

Thanks

[Simon]

Hi Yang,

I think the two phrases DO mean the same thing. What do you see as different?

[Yang]

Simon,

sorry for taking your time, maybe it is my
misunderstanding.I think the composition of the phrase of "consumer spending on five different products" means consumer(s.) who spends on five different products", and the second phrase of "the amount of money that people spent on five items" means the quantity of money(s.) that people spent on five items.

The first phrase describes the consumer, and the second phrase describes the money.

Thanks!

[Simon]

Hi Yang,

Ok, I think I can see where you're getting confused:

The meaning of "consumer spending" is "amount of money spent by consumers".

e.g. Consumer spending rose = The amount of money spent by consumers rose

Does this help?

[Yang]

Simon,

Thanks for your explanation, I finally understand.
It really helps me a lot!

[An]

Hi Simon,

Thanks for providing the lesson! Can you please explain more when we use the plural form of 'amounts' (in the second example)? I personally have never seen 'amounts' though...

[Jay]

Hi Simon,

I had a doubt in this sentence "The amounts of rice and pasta that people in eat.". Why we could use "in eat", instead of "in eating"? Could we put verb behind Preposition and use present simple?

Thanks you advance.

[Minh]

Hi Jay,
I would like to respond to your inquiry as below:
Simon wrote in (name four countries) eat; so it means the learner will automatically put names of 4 countries between the word "in" and "eat". 'Eat' is the actual verb of the relative phrase "that people in (name four countries) eat".
I hope you're not confused by my explanation :D.

[Leah]

Hi Simon, I am always confused about time period. In your No 3 example:

changes in the cost of renting a home between 2009 and 2019 =
information about residential rental prices over a 10-year period

How could "between 2009 and 2019" equals to 10-year period? I think it should be 11-year period.

If you count 2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019, there are 11 years in total.

Pls kindly advice me.

Regards,
Leah