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...Conversely, from 1995 to 2015, a net increase was seen in the figure for females, which jumped to approximately 3000 in 2010 before declining to 2000, [being double/doubling] that for males in the last year examined.

I wonder if I should use being double or doubling or neither of them in this sentence. I feel like being double is more correct, but I'm not so sure. enter image description here

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    I know it's all fake, but I can't see any trend or pattern in those data. They look exactly what random numbers look like.
    – James K
    Commented Mar 28 at 6:38

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The verb "double" means to duplicate or to change by a factor of two. You can say "The number of cats is double the number of dogs", (with the adjective "double") but not "the number of cats doubles the number of dogs".

Your particular data are in a mess, with no discernable trend or pattern. That makes it exceptionally difficult to "tell the story", since there is no story to tell. It's far harder to describe a random sequence of numbers than to describe numbers that follow a trend.

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  • I know, right? This chart is absurd. Still, grammatically speaking, is "being double" the correct choice?
    – An IELTS Learner
    Commented Mar 28 at 8:06
  • Yes, but this is not the sort of question I'd like to get!
    – James K
    Commented Mar 28 at 8:26
  • May I ask why? I mean this exam question is bad, but the piece of knowledge I asked you above might be useful for people in other situations.
    – An IELTS Learner
    Commented Mar 28 at 9:11
  • Well it's like I said in the answer. What IELTS want you to do is to "tell the story" of the data, using a variety of verb tenses and aspects. But when the numbers are essentially a random series, there is no story to tell. So what is the poor test taker to do? If this was "real", you would have had some hypotheses to test, eg "Gym membership has increased" or "More men use the gym". You would then be able to answer in the form "These data support/don't support the hypothesis".
    – James K
    Commented Mar 28 at 9:53
  • So the "real" answer is "There are no clear trends in these data. Gym membership has fluctuated widely over the period. There is insufficient evidence to support the hypothesis that more men or women use the gym." But that's not what the person who set the test wants... This is because the people who create English tests for IELTS are mathematically illiterate and have no understanding of data! They probably never took a maths class beyond age 16 and have about the same level of maths as an average 12 year-old.
    – James K
    Commented Mar 28 at 9:57

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