the number of TV audience <increases quickly>

[fh3579]

There is a problem for non-native speakers like me. We just rely on Chinese definition too much, and can't feel the nuance.
For example, there is a sentence: The number of TV audience rises rapidly between 8pm and 10pm.
Someone provides another version: The number of TV audience increases quickly between 8 o'clock and 10 o'clock at night.
I feel "increases quickly" is not as good as "rises rapidly". But I can't give the exact reason.
The context is, the sentence will be used in a IELTS writing task.
I hope this post is not considered one which ask you to do a proofreading.

 

[Edinburgher]

There is nothing wrong with using increases and rises interchangeably here, and likewise rapidly and quickly.
The problem is with "number of TV audience", which should be changed to "the size of the TV audience".

 

[tepatria]

The number of TV audience rises rapidly between 8pm and 10pm.

We do not say "the number of audience". "The number of people watching TV" or "The TV audience increases..." is correct.
I prefer increases in this context. If an audience rises it could mean the people are rising to stand up.

 

[fh3579]

And do you think 8pm and 10pm and 8 o'clock and 10 o'clock at night are interchangeable? The sentence will be used in IELTS writing task, so it should be formal. Does 8 o'clock and 10 o'clock at night not formal enough?

 

[Parla]

They're interchangeable as to meaning (although I'd call it evening rather than "night"), but 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.* are more concise and, in my opinion, preferable.

*I would leave spaces after the numbers and use periods in the abbreviations.

 

[fh3579]

Can you ask you a question, which perios could be called evening and which could be called night? Textbooks didn't teach us such knowledge.

 

[tepatria]

There are many threads that discuss evening if you look for them. This is a new question that does not relate to your thread, so I think you should start a new one to ask this question. It would be very helpful for anyone who has the same difficulty you are having.

 

[Linkway]

The OP specifically indicated that the context was "IELTS".

IELTS, the International English Language Testing Service, is primarily British-based and I imagine it would expect the normal conventions of British English to be followed, rather than American.

If you look at some past IELTS papers, you will see that "8 pm" is the preferred way of stating a time in the evening (i.e. NOT "8 p.m.").

However, I doubt whether the presence/absence of full-stops/periods (pm or p.m.) would matter at all in an IELTS writing task.

 

[fh3579]

Thanks tepatria and Linkway. I think Linkway's opinion makes sense.