Comparison and Contrast

When you are speaking at university, you need to do much more than just give information. You should always be trying to do something with your speaking. One common function is comparing and contrasting, speaking about similarities and differences. There are many ways of expressing comparison and contrast in English.

Task 8.Look at the following table and read the text below. Pay attention to the comparisons and contrasts.

Compare your answer with the model:

We compared three personal computers, the Evesham Axis 1.33 SK, the Armani R850 P4 and the Mesh Elite 1.7 GT Pro, with respect to the following factors: price, processor speed and size of hard disk. The Evesham Axis, which costs �1,174, is by far the cheapest of the three, the Armani and the Mesh Elite costing �2,467 and �1,938 respectively. The Evesham Axis has the same hard disk size as the Armani, 40 MB, whereas the Mesh Elite is the largest at 57 GB. Regarding the processor speed, the Armani and the Mesh Elite are similar - the processor speed, at 1.7 GHz, being 0.37 GHz faster than the Evesham Axis.

Task 9. Using the above paragraph as a model, compare the Armani, the Mesh Elite and the Elonex with respect to price, screen size and amount of RAM.

Task 10. Using the example in the table and the phrases below make up your own examples with comparison and contrast.

with respect to price.

as regards price.

as far as price concerned.

regarding price.

in terms of price.

in price.

Task 11. Read the following examples and say what they mean comparison or contrast

Task 12. Students at university need to organise their lives, control their finances, keep records of phone numbers, remember assignment and exam dates etc. Some students use paper diaries and notes for this, but the use of electronic Personal Data Assistants is becoming more popular. The table below compares 19 PDAs.

Using the information given in the table, recommend one of the PDAs for general student use. You will need to describe what a student has to do, describe some of the PDAs, compare and contrast the ones you have chosen, look at advantages and disadvantages and finally recommend one.

Task 13. Compare and contrast two closely related terms used in your field in order to show their similarities and differences:

Example Term a: computer Term b: word processor

A computer is a device that is similar to a word processor in that it can be used to produce and edit text; however, it differs from a word processor in that it can be programmed and can be used for other applications, such as spreadsheets and databases.

Term a: Term b:

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Task 14. (out-class) Read the article (text B) and find the examples of comparison and contrast. (The text is in CD)

PART 3