英語學習點: Birth and Statistics 出生和統計數據

It is official: there are now seven billion of us! This week baby Danica had hardly been brought to life in a Manila hospital's delivery room when she was awarded a Symbolic Seven Billionth Person certificate.

But there were claims in Russia and India of other newly-born babies being 'Citizen Seven Billion'.

The UN's population demographer, Gerhard Heilig, accepted that it is impossible to know accurately who carries the honour as the figures come with a 1-2% margin of error. But this is an important milestone.

The UN wanted to draw attention to the speed of population growth as it took less than 13 years for the Earth to welcome a billion more people.

And the organisation published a report that highlights the rise in average life expectancy and the fact that children are much less likely to die in infancy.

But it also mentions the challenges for a species with a high fertility rate living on a planet of limited resources and uneven development conditions. It points out that 200 million women have no access to family planning advice.

''Sex education has an impact in delaying the age at the first sexual intercourse, in increasing the use of contraception methods and condoms,'' says Gabriela Rivera from the UN's population agency.

Amid articles about population control measures, The Guardian, in Britain, invited its readers to send Danica a message. A comment signed by Faisal Al Mutar said: ''Having beaten out around 275 million other little spermatozoa you're already a winner!''