In an early survey conducted in 1888, a billion and a half people inhabited the earth. Now, the population is about six billion
and is growing fast. Even though the rate of growth has begun to slow down, most people believe the population size may be eight billion during the next several years.If we examine the amount of land available for this ever increasing population, we begin to see the problem. Not all land is useful to us because it cannot produce food. We can cut out about one fifth of it because it is covered by snow and ice. Then we can cut out another fifth because it is desert. Another fifth is mountains. The other fifth does not have enough soil for crops to grow because it is bare rock. Obviously, with so little land to support us, we should take great care not to reduce it any more or with the rapidly growing population we may sooner or later lack food to eat and place to live in.31.What is the main topic of the passage?A. The world's population and the shortage of cultivated land.B. The growth of the world's population.C. The necessity of reducing the rate of birth.D. The shortage of cultivated land.
After reading the passage, we can say that the main topic developed in it is:
A. The world's population and the shortage of cultivated land.
<h3>Identifying the main topics in a passage:</h3>
The main topic is the central idea that guides the author's writing. The same passage can have more than one main topic.
One way to identify what those topics are is by taking a look at the first sentences of the passage as well as at its conclusion. These are places where authors need to place the main idea to introduce it and to wrap it up.
By looking at the first sentences of this passage, we can easily see that one of the topics is the population growth. By looking at the passage's conclusion, we can see that shortage of land is also a topic.
This author is basically discussing the two things together: the population growth may lead us to face a complicated issue - lack of cultivated land.
With the information above in mind, we can choose letterA as the best option.
Charles Baker "Dill" Harris is a short, smart boy who visits Maycomb every summer from Meridian, Mississippi and stays with his Aunt Rachel (Aunt Stephanie in the film). Dill is the best friend of both Jem and Scout, and his goal throughout the novel is to get Boo Radley to come out of his house.
