Open the brackets in the Passive:
1) Bagpipes….. (make) of sheepskin.
2) The Statue of Liberty …… (give) to the Americans by the French.
3) The Republic of Ireland ….. (create) in 1921.
4) Computers and silicon chips ….. (produce) in Silicon Valley.
5) The pyramids ……(not build) by the Greeks.
Although it covers around 17% of the world’s inhabited land, Russia is only home to around 2% of Earth’s inhabitants. With a staggering population of over 1.3 billion people, or just over 19% of the global community, China is the most populous country on Earth. During the Qing Dynasty, from the mid-17th century to early 20th century, the population swelled from 150 million to 450 million as migratory expansions in farming and advancements in agricultural technology allowed the country to feed a bigger population. The next massive population boom began after World War II under Mao Zedong’s leadership. China underwent a period of modernization during Mao’s rule, including improvements to its health care system, which increased life expectancy dramatically. At the same time, Mao urged people to have larger families because he believed that population growth would result in the empowerment of the country as a whole. During Mao’s reign, from 1949 to 1976, China’s population grew from approximately 540 million to 940 million. In order to curb China’s overpopulation, the one-child policy was instituted in 1979 and has slowed the country’s exponential growth, but the population has still climbed to over 1 billion more than the third-ranked United States (313 million).
China may not hold the “most populous” title for long, though. The U.N. predicts that in the next 15 years, China’s and India’s populations will both reach nearly 1.5 billion. At this point, China’s population will begin to decrease, due to an aging population without a sufficient birth rate to sustain growth, and India’s will continue to climb.