With its 190 million inhabitants, Brazil has the largest population in Latin America and ranks fifth in the world.  However, Brazil's population growth rate has dropped greatly and Brazilian women now have only 2.7 children on average. This achievement really becomes the envy of many other Third World countries. Brazil has become one of the developing world's great successes at reducing population growth-----but more by accident than design. While countries such as India have made joint efforts to reduce birth rates, Brazil has had a better result without really trying, says George Martine at Harvard. Martine  _ , among other things, soap operas(TV series) and installment  plans introduced in the 1970s. Both played an important, although indirect role in lowering the birth rate. Brazil is one of the world's biggest producers of soap operas. Globo, Brazil's most popular television network, shows three hours of soaps six nights a week, while three others show at least one hour a night. Most TV series are based on wealthy characters living the high life in big cities. "Although they have never really tried to work in a message towards the problems of reproduction , they describe middle and upper class values-----not many children, different attitudes towards sex, women working," says Martine. "They sent this image to all parts of Brazil and made people conscious of other patterns of behavior and other values, which were put into a very attractive package." Meanwhile, the installment plans tried to encourage the poor to become consumers. "This led to an enormous change in consumption patterns and showed that consumption was in contradiction with unlimited reproduction," says Martine. According to the passage, many Third World countries  _  .
haven't attached much importance to birth control would soon join Brazil in controlling their birth rate neglected the role of TV plays in family planning haven't yet found effective measures to control their population