"a range of", "a variety of" and "many kinds of", which one is more advanced?

Question

I am preparing for IELTS test, in which advanced words get higher score.

consider these

there is a range of jobs in my home town

there is a variety of jobs in my home town

there are many kinds of jobs in my home town

which one is more advanced?

Answer 1

The variant with many kinds of is the simplest vocabulary, and the one with variety of has the same meaning with slightly more advanced vocabulary.

The variant with range of, while colloquial, is bordering on incorrect, or at least a poor word choice. Usually, range is used to describe an ordered set of options that has a maximum and a minimum. For example: "This apartment building offers a range of apartment sizes to suit everyone from single occupants to large families."

Jobs in general have many different characteristics that makes it impossible to rank them from the "minimum job" to the "maximum job," so usually you'd only use range on one of those rankable characteristics. For example:

• There is a variety of jobs in my hometown suitable for a range of experience levels.

In this sentence, a variety means "many different types," while a range of means that there are jobs for very experienced people, very inexperienced people, and everyone in between.

In the real world, you will encounter native speakers using range to describe a unordered set of things, but if you're trying to speak English precisely, then variety is definitely a better word choice in this case than range is.