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Text 1
Anti-Smoking Role
Playing
About smoking and health:
In 1964，ten members of the Surgeon General's
Advisory Committee, all outstanding physicians and scientists
of the United States, evaluated three kinds of scientific
evidence: (1) animal experiments, (2) clinical or autopsy
studies, (3)population studies to establish the correlation
between tobacco smoking and various fatal diseases. Animal
experimentation indicated that toxic or irritant gases contained
in tobacco smoke produced the kinds of damage seen in the
tissues and cells of heavy smokers. Clinical and autopsy studies
among smokers also showed that many types of harm to body
functions and organs occurred more frequently and severely
in smokers. Population researches demonstrated that cigarette
smokers had a proportionately higher incidence of lung cancer
and other illnesses than nonsmokers, displaying such specific
signs and symptoms as chronic cough, breathlessness, and chest
tightness. After a careful review of studies and evidences
in the area, the committee made the following judgments: "Cigarette
smoking is a health hazard of sufficient importance in the
United States to warrant appropriate preventive and remedial
action."
In 1962, Italy banned all tobacco advertising.
In Finland, in July, 1962, television advertising of cigarettes
ended. In February of 1965, the British Labor Government said
that it would ban all cigarette advertising from television
and was considering a similar ban on newspaper and on poster
ads. The United States government approved a health hazard
warning which began appearing on all cigarette packages in
January 1966.
Language notes:
1. Surgeon General: the chief of medical officer in the U.S. Bureau of Public Health.
2.
Heroin, cocaine, nicotine: All are habit-forming
or dependence-causing drugs.
Marijuana: dried leaves and flowers of an Indian plant smoked in cigarettes
to cause sense of pleasure.
3.
Smoking is more than just a bad habit such as eating too much
sweet food.
More than means not only/just/merely/simply;
far above; greater than.
e.g. Civilization is more than modernization,
which, in turn, means more than material richness.
Therefore the sentence can be paraphrase as
follows: The problem of smoking is not as simple as a bad
habit like eating sweet food too much.
4. ...and resist being branded a weirdo ...
Weirdo means a very strange unpleasant person.
So the section can be re-expressed as: refuse firmly to be
labeled (as) a queer fellow.
5.
"I would be more of a chicken if I smoked just to impress you."
Note the structure of "be of + n.".
e.g. She feels less of a boss now for her
directions are not followed. 6.
...did not want to be pressured into smoking....
This part means …did not want to be forced
to start smoking….
There are many other verbs that can be used
in the pattern of "v.+sb into doing sth, like talk (at the
end of the second following paragraph)/persuade/cheat/force
etc. sb into doing sth."
7.
Much as people can be inoculated against germs, they can be
protected from the social pressures that encourage them to
smoke.
Much as :just like
or more or less the same as.
8.
Children ask their parents why they knowingly engage in such
self-destructive behavior when they direct so much of their
energy toward preserving their lives.
This sentence means: Children wonder why
their parents should pay so much attention to their physical
conditions, now that at the same time they deliberately get
themselves trapped in and hooked up by such a self-killing
action as smoking. The parents' indulgence in smoking makes
it incomprehensible for them to take pains to keep healthy
at the same time.
9.
This practice is legal even though it is not legal to refuse
a person on the basis of age, race, or religion.
This sentence means: Today, refusing to hire
smoking people is right in term of law whereas, by a sharp
contrast, refusing to take on a person because of his or her
age, race, or religion is regarded as illegal.
Text 2
What Most Smokers Don't Know
More about the dangers of smoking:
1. Dangers
of Cigarette Smoking. Cigarette smoking kills nearly
about 430,000 people a year, making it more lethal than AIDS,
automobile accidents, homicides, suicides, drug overdoses,
and fires combined. It reduces smokers' life expectancy by
15 to 25 years, and is the single most preventable cause of
death. In one study only 42% of male lifelong smokers reached
the age of 73 compared to 78% of nonsmokers. Smoking may be
even more dangerous in women. Smoking-related health costs
force Americans to spend an astounding $130 billion each year.
Smoking may be even more dangerous now than 30 years ago,
most likely because the lower tar and nicotine levels in most
cigarette brands cause people to inhale more deeply. The smoke
is the most dangerous component of the cigarette. Smoke contains
nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide, which are harmful gases.
When people inhale they also bring tar into their lungs. Tar
itself includes 4,000 chemicals, some of which are known to
cause cancer. Other inhaled chemicals include:1）Cyanide.2)
Benzene.3) Formaldehyde. 4) Methanol (wood alcohol). 5) Acetylene
(the fuel used in torches). 6) Ammonia.
2. Dangers
of Cigars and Pipes. One study reported that people who
switch from cigarettes to cigars or pipes halve their risk
of lung cancer, heart disease, and chronic lung disease, possibly
because they use less tobacco and inhale less. Still, the
risk of these diseases using "safer" forms of tobacco
is 50% to almost 70% higher than nonsmokers. And the risk
for periodontal disease and tooth loss may be just as high
in pipe and cigar smokers as it is in cigarette smokers.
3. Dangers
of Smokeless Tobacco. Twelve million Americans use smokeless
tobacco; most are men, and 25% are teenagers. Smokeless tobacco
includes chewing tobacco, tobacco powder, and snuff. These
products allow tobacco to be absorbed by the digestive system
or through mucus membranes, and none of them are harmless.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
chewing smokeless tobacco 8 to 10 times per day may be equivalent
to smoking 30 to 40 cigarettes per day. It produces a 50-fold
increase in the risk of oral cancer, gingivitis, and tooth
loss. Most users also become addicted.
4. Dangers
of Second-Hand Smoke. People who are exposed to second-hand
or side-stream smoke are also at risk. Smoke that is exhaled
not only contains the same dangerous contaminants as inhaled
smoke, but the exhaled smoke particles are smaller, so that
they can reach distant sites in the lungs of involuntary or
passive smokers and do great harm.
Language notes:
1. ...a person's vital sign...: the very important indicators
of life in a human being, such as breath, body temperature,
heartbeat, blood pressure, and so on.
2. ...since the fragrances are overshadowed by the aroma of tobacco
smoke.
This clause means: ...now that the expensive
perfume's pleasant smells prove only powerless, overwhelmed
by the odor of tobacco smoke.
Overshadow means make dark or dim;
overwhelm: overpower.
e.g. The brilliance of this playwright is
said to have been overshadowed by that of W. Shakespeare.
3.
...to be oblivious to the smelly side effects ...
To be oblivious means to be totally
unaware of; to be forgetful or neglectful about.
e.g. Oblivious to his responsibilities, he
had to step down from his post.
4.
Cigarette smoking has been established as a significant cause
of cancer of a great variety.
This sentence means: People have recognized
and confirmed that cigarette smoking is a primary cause of
different kinds of cancer.
5. ...are rotated...: (here) are shown or displayed by
turns or alternately.
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