研究发现，尽管有大量的警示告诫人们吸烟有害健康，目前全球十分之一的死亡是由吸烟导致。作为解决可预防疾病健康诱因措施的一部分，目前，英国政府承诺到2030年在英格兰全面停止吸烟。但为什么有些人还在吸烟呢？“随身英语”讨论这背后的原因，以及帮助人们戒烟的举措。

Vocabulary: smoking 词汇：吸烟

If you walked into a cafe or pub in the UK a few years ago, chances were you’d enter a room filled with cigarette smoke. The aroma of burning tobacco lingered on your clothes for the rest of day and your health took a battering from passive smoking. It’s no wonder that in many countries smoking in public places has now been banned, and those who choose to do it have to inhale on the pavements outside.

Laws restricting where people can light up and repeated health warnings have seen many people quit the habit. But despite a decline in smoking rates worldwide, a report published in the medical journal The Lancet in 2017 found that smoking causes one in ten deaths worldwide, half of them in just four countries - China, India, the US and Russia. When population growth is taken into account, there is actually an increase in the overall number of smokers. So why - despite the warning signs - are these people still doing it?

Much of it seems to be connected to people’s cultural, economic and social background. In the UK, for example, the Office for National Statistics found that people living on a low income are disproportionately likely to smoke. And one in four manual workers smokes, compared with one in ten of those in professional or managerial jobs. Dr Leonie Brose from King's College London, writing about this for the BBC, says there are “startling” regional variations with many more pregnant women smoking in deprived areas. And people with mental health problems are “50% more likely to smoke than the rest of the population”. She suggests these groups can have higher levels of dependence, making it harder to give up and are also more likely to be around other smokers, making it seem like normal behaviour. 

Increasing the price of cigarettes and making packaging plainer are two ways to discourage smoking; and lower-risk nicotine patches and e-cigarettes are available as an alternative, though they can be just as addictive. It’s obvious something needs to be done and recently the UK government pledged to end smoking in England by 2030 as part of a range of measures to tackle the causes of preventable ill health. But as Dr Leonie Brose writes, “with more than 200 deaths in England per day [caused by smoking-related diseases,] that’s the equivalent to a plane crashing every day.” Imagine what the number must be globally.

词汇表

cigarette smoke 香烟的烟雾
aroma （烟草的）气味   
tobacco 烟草   
passive smoking 被动吸烟   
inhale 吸入（烟）   
light up 点烟   
quit the habit 戒除恶习   
smoker 吸烟者   
warning sign 警告，告诫   
to give up 戒掉……   
packaging 包装   
nicotine patch （贴在皮肤上帮助戒烟的）尼古丁贴片   
e-cigarette 电子烟  
addictive 使人上瘾的  
preventable 可预防的  

测验与练习

1.   阅读课文并回答问题。

1. What, in general, has persuaded people to stop smoking?

2. According to research, who in the UK is more likely to smoke?

3. True or false? Plainer packaging makes cigarettes more expensive.

4. Why might smoking be totally banned in England by 2030?

5. Which word used by Dr Leonie Brose means ‘very surprising and worrying’?

2.  请在不参考课文的情况下完成下列练习。选择一个意思合适的单词填入句子的空格处。

1. When I visit my local cafe, I love to breath in the _______ of freshly brewed coffee.

inhale                        tobacco                     aroma                      addictive

2. My doctor has told me to lose weight, so I have decided to _______ eating biscuits.

giving up                   give up                      given up                   gave up

3. It’s not fair! I seem to have _______ more work to do than my colleagues.

disproportionately     disproportion             disproportioned        disproportioning

4. Some experts say the power industry’s _______ on coal needs to change to help climate change.

preventable              addictive                   disproportionately      dependence

5. One of our investors missed the _______ and lost all his money by investing it on the stock market.

warned signs            warning signs            warn signs                warning sign

答案

1. 阅读课文并回答问题。

1. What, in general, has persuaded people to stop smoking?

Laws restricting where people can smoke and repeated health warnings ha ve seen  many people quit the habit.

2.According to research, who in the UK is more likely to smoke?

The Office for National Statistics found that people living on a low income are disproportionately likely to smoke.

3.True or false? Plainer packaging makes cigarettes more expensive.

False. Increasing the price of cigarettes and making packaging plainer are two ways to discourage smoking.

4. Why might smoking be totally banned in England by 2030?

The UK government want to do this as part of a range of measures to tackle the causes of preventable ill health – that’s illnesses caused by our own behaviour.

5. Which word used by Dr Leonie Brose means ‘very surprising and worrying’?

Startling. She said that there are “startling” regional variations with many more pregnant women smoking in deprived areas.

2. 请在不参考课文的情况下完成下列练习。选择一个意思合适的单词填入句子的空格处。

1. When I visit my local cafe, I love to breath in the aroma of freshly brewed coffee.

2. My doctor has told me to lose weight, so I have decided to give up eating biscuits.

3. It’s not fair! I seem to have disproportionately more work to do than my colleagues.

4. Some experts say the power industry’s dependence on coal needs to change to help climate change.

5. One of our investors missed the warning signs and lost all his money by investing it on the stock market.