Directions: In this section, you will hear a passage three times. When the passage is read for the fifi rst time, you should listen carefully for its general idea. When the passage is read for the second time, you are required to fifi ll in the blanks numbered from 16 to 23 with the exact words you have just heard. For blanks numbered from 24 to 26 you are required to fifi ll in the missing information. You can either use the exact words you have just heard or write down the main points in your own words. Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you should check what you have written. A very important world problem, if not the most serious of all the great world problems which 16____ us at the moment, is the increasing number of people who actually inhabit this planet. The limited amount of land and land 17____ will soon be unable to support the huge population if it continues to grow at its present rate. In an early survey 18———————— in 1888, a billion and a half people inhabited the earth. Now, the population 19____ fi ve billion and is growing fast — by the staggering fi gure of 90 million in 1988 alone. This means that the world must 20____ a new population roughly equal to that of the United States and Canada every three years! Even though the rate of growth has begun to slow down, most experts believe the population size will still pass eight billion during the next 50 years. So why is this huge increase in population taking place? It is really due to the 21____ of the knowledge and practice of what is becoming known as “Death Control”. You have no doubt heard of the term “Birth Control”. “Death Control” is something rather different. It 22____ the work of the doctors and scientists who now keep alive people who, not very long ago, would have died of a variety of then 23____ diseases. Through a wide variety of technological innovations that include farming methods and sanitation, as well as the control of these deadly diseases, we have foudn ways to reduce the 24____ at which we die and create a population explosion . We used to think that reaching seventy years old was a remarkable achievement, but now eighty or even ninety is becoming recognized as the normal life-span for humans . In a sense, this represents a tremendous achievement for our species. Biologically, this is the very definition of 25____ and we have undoubtedly become the dominant animal ono the planet . However, this success is the very cause of the greatest threat to mankind.