(IELTS) Academic Task 1 - Carbon Cycle Diagram Note: I'll definitely fail to achieve band score 7 if I have to face a similar writing assignment in the actual exam. The first draft I wrote was terrible. Below is the 3rd one (after a lot of dictionary check and reference to sample answer), and I still have an unsettled feeling reading it. With my current level of skill, diagrams are horrifying... This diagram describes the iterative loop of carbon on Earth. It is clear from the illustration that the cycle could be broken down into two opposing processes: the consumption and generation of carbon dioxide. For the consumption process, at first carbon dioxide in the air is absorbed and by plants and grasses. The stored carbon is then distributed to numerous animals mostly via ingestion. Vegetation is the food source of herbivore creatures, such as small insects. They are in turn consumed by secondary level consumers, such as fishes or little birds. At the end of the food chain, large predatory birds and mammals devour secondary consumers as a source of nutrients. The reverse process of releasing carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere involves all the living creatures mentioned above. This process can either happen through the breathing mechanism of living beings or as a decomposed product from their waste or corpses.