TUGAS 1 READING 2 / PBIS4208

Now read the following article, and then answer the questions that follows.

TOO MANY MOUTHS TO FEED?

1. How many people can live on the face of the earth? No one knows the answer. It
depends on how much food people can grow without destroying the environment.

2. More people now exist than ever before, and the population keeps growing. Every 15
seconds, about 100 babies are born. By the early 21st century, experts say, as many as
6 billion people will live on this planet. Before the end of the 21st century, the earth
may hold 10 billion people!

3. To feed everyone, farmers must grow more food. They are trying to do so. World food
production has gradually risen over the years. In some parts of the world, however, the
population is growing faster than the food supply. Some experts fear the world will not
be able to produce enough food for a population that never stops increasing.

4. To grow more crops on the same amount of land, farmers use fertilizers and
pesticides. Some plant new kinds of grains that produce more food. These things help
– but they don’t provide perfect solutions. The chemicals in fertilizers and pesticides
can pollute water supplies. The new seeds developed by scientists may have reached
the limit of what they can produce.

5. When hungry people can coax no more out of existing farmland, they search for more.
Usually, the best land is already in use. People have to scretch new farms into steep
hillsides or carve fields out of forests.

6. As people clear trees from hills and forests, they expose the soil. Then rain and floods
may strip the topsoil from fields. Winds may blow it away. This process is called
erosion. Each year erosion steals billions of tons of topsoil from farmers – soil they
could have used to grow food.

7. Destruction of trees, erosion, and overgrazing by farm animals can turn fertile land
into desert. And deserts can spread. The Sahara Desert in North Africa, for example, is
moving southward. Its shifting sands are gradually smothering villages and fields.

8. To farmers water can be as important as the land. In recent years irrigation has made
many dry areas bloom. Yet experts warn that some forms of irrigation can hurt the
land in the long run. Sometimes irrigation water contains large quantities of dissolved
salt. Over time the salt builds up in the soil and kills plants.

9. This harvest of problems demands solutions. But experts disagree about what should
be done. Some believe birthrates must fall or the world will run out of food. “Without
 reducing the size of the human population,” says Stanford University professor Paul
Ehrlich, “none of these problems is likely to be solved.”

10. Other experts believe the earth can provide enough food for all. Pierre Crosson and
Norman Rosenberg of Resources for the Future, a research group, say that world food
production could grow much more slowly than current rate, and there would still be
enough food for ten billion people. Still, getting the food to those who need it is a
problem. In some tropical countries, two-thirds of the world’s people live on only one-
fifth of the world’s food.

11. Most hungry people live in developing countries – those without much modern
industry. The people lack money to buy food and means to transport it. If nations with
surplus food try to help, donations may not reach those who need them. Bad roads,
politics, and warfare often block delivery.

12. Since no one can predict the future, no one knows how long the world’s food supply
will feed its people. Most experts favor a two-part attack on hunger. Bring food
supplies up and birth rates down.

13. Better education for women in developing countries can help do both. Women do
much of the farm work in these countries. Education will help them get the most out of
agricultural assistance. They can also take advantage of family planning information.

14. Scientists can aid the war against hunger by developing crops that resist disease and
by improving irrigation methods. People everywhere must learn how to grow food
without harming the environment.

15. Population and hunger are global problems. No one nation can solve them. “We have
created the fix in which society finds itself,” says Ehrlich, “but we still have the
opportunity and ability to pull ourselves out of it – if we act rapidly and with
determination. Our species is capable of providing all its members with a satisfying,
productive life in a healthy environment. No great scientific breakthroughs are
required – just a collective determination to change our minds and our ways.”

A. What is the main idea of each of the following paragraphs.

1. Paragraph 2
2. Paragraph 6
3. Paragraph 10
4. Paragraph 13
5. Paragraph 15

B. Answer the following questions.

1. What two main problems does the article discuss?
2. What two primary solutions to these problems does the article suggest?
3. What two groups of people should be part of the solution?
4. What is the result of overgrazing, erosion, and cutting trees?
5. How can education help save the environment?