Breaking News English

The world has reached a [somewhere / somewhat] worrying demographic milestone. The U.S. Census Bureau said on Thursday that the population of our planet has [surprised / surpassed] 8 billion. A spokesperson said the bureau estimated that [a / the] global population exceeded 8 billion on the 26th of September. However, he said this was a very [roughly / rough] guess and the [precise / incise] day could be a month or two [either / neither] side of this date. The Bureau declared that the world population would continue to grow [of / at] a steady rate. It has grown from 6 billion to 8 billion in the [passed / past] two decades. The number of Earth's inhabitants had [doubled / doubles] between 1960 and 2000. The rate of growth is slowing [as / has] birth rates are falling in many nations.

The Census Bureau [contributed / attributed] the slowdown in population growth [for / to] trends of [longer / lengthen] lifespans and lower fertility rates. However, it forecast that the population would [reach / breach] 10.2 billion in 2060. It said: "The world population is projected to [keep / hold] growing despite declining fertility rates. In fact, we estimate the number of infants already [parked / peaked] in 2017. Instead, population growth [on / in] the future will come from larger groups of people at adult [years / ages] ." It added: "Population growth is the result of fertility, mortality, migration and the share of the population at certain [ages / age] .…Nearly three quarters (74 per cent) of the earth's population [reside / inside] in countries where fertility is around or below the replacement level."