Bailey.Academic_Writing

2.9 Numbers 93
Dozens of villages were cut off by the heavy snowstorm.
The following words or phrases can be used to describe
quantity.
Few students attended her lecture. (less than expected)
Several bodies have been discovered under the temple
floor. (3–4)
Various attempts were made to explain the symbols. (3–6)
Dozens of politicians attended the opening ceremony.
(30–60)
Scores of books are published every week. (50–100)
Rewrite the following sentences using one of the words or
phrases above.
a) Only four people responded to the questionnaire.
b) They received nearly 100 applications for the post.
c) She made five or six proposals to improve the team’s
performance.
d) He found over fifty factual errors in the article.
e) They made three or four drafts before writing the final
report.
4. Study the following expressions, which are also used to simplify
statistics.
one in three
twice (2)/three times as many
a tenfold increase
to double/halve
the most/least
a third/a quarter
the majority/minority
50%, a percentage
on average/the average
number
a small/large proportion
Rewrite each sentence in a simpler way, using one of the
expressions above.