The farmland was transformed become residential areas.
I have written elsewhere about how Indonesian IELTS candidates often use become to talk about a constant, where in English it is only ever used to describe a change. However, although become is used to describe a change, we would not use become AND transform together. Continue reading
The IA-CEPA is predicted to stabilise diplomatic relations between the two countries.
If you want to say something will change, without mentioning the thing that will be affected by the change (the object of the change), then the writer of our opening example is using the right structure: Continue reading
Full-day school becomes an important issue because it concerns a wide range of people, especially parents.
This is the influence of Bahasa Indonesia. In English become is used to describe a change, rather than a constant:
In each of these three cases, a change is implied, from alert to sleepy, from sharp to dull, and from newspaper journalist to superhero. They are all familiar, recurring situations, and so we use present simple tense to describe them.
If we say “Full-day school becomes an important issue,” a change is indeed implied (from non full-day school to full-day school), but since this is a unique, rather than a recurring situation, then we need a time frame.
If the change happened in the past, but we’re not sure exactly when, then we use present perfect tense:
If the change is happening right now – continuously – then we can use present continuous tense:
However, if we are analysing a situation that is true now, constant and without change, as though we are looking at it under a microscope, then we use present simple tense:
Choose appropriate words from the drop-down menus to complete the text.
In 2015 sales of all 3 types of fast food increased dramatically.
This is a common error. Unfortunately there is no information about change in 2015, only from 2005 to 2015:
If you are not specific about the time frame then your reporting of data will be inaccurate and you will receive a low score in IELTS for Task Achievement.
Before you write, decide exactly when the change happened and design a suitable time expression. These are the most commonly used:
The percentage of Australians holding a maths, science, or computing degree raised quite significantly from 10 to 18.
It’s an easy mistake to make. There are 2 verbs with similar meanings. One is transitive (must have an object), the other intransitive (no object).
Indonesians need to consider the difference between naik and menaikkan.
In your example you use ‘to raise‘, as in ‘raise the titanic’ (V2: raised). However, you have no object, and so what you need is ‘to rise‘ (V2: rose):
Let me try to make a sentence using ‘to raise‘:
A combination of improved teaching methods, widespread availability of courses, student interest and governmental commitment raised the percentage of Australians holding a maths, science, or computing degree quite significantly from 10 to 18.
Possibly you were looking for a synonym for ‘to increase‘ in the hope of avoiding repetition. OK, well the synonym you’re looking for is ‘to rise‘. But ‘increase‘ is a very effective word in Task 1 writing. To avoid repetition, use ‘increase‘ both as a verb and as a noun: