Who’s still smoking? 誰還在吸煙？

研究發現，盡管有大量的警示告誡人們吸煙有害健康，目前全球十分之一的死亡是由吸煙導致。作為解決可預防疾病健康誘因措施的一部分，目前，英國政府承諾到2030年在英格蘭全面停止吸煙。但為什麼有些人還在吸煙呢？“隨身英語”討論這背後的原因，以及幫助人們戒煙的舉措。

Vocabulary: smoking 詞匯：吸煙

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 AYYBLOG, 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.

詞匯表

cigarette smoke 香煙的煙霧
aroma （煙草的）氣味
tobacco 煙草
passive smoking 被動吸煙
inhale 吸入（煙）
light up 點煙
quit the habit 戒除惡習
smoker 吸煙者
warning sign 警告，告誡
to give up 戒掉……
packaging 包裝
nicotine patch （貼在皮膚上幫助戒煙的）尼古丁貼片
e-cigarette 電子煙
addictive 使人上癮的
preventable 可預防的

測驗與練習

1. 閱讀課文並回答問題。

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. 請在不參考課文的情況下完成下列練習。選擇一個意思合適的單詞填入句子的空格處。

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. 閱讀課文並回答問題。

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

Laws restricting where people can smoke and repeated health warnings have 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.請在不參考課文的情況下完成下列練習。選擇一個意思合適的單詞填入句子的空格處。

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.