Text 1

Anti-Smoking Role Playing

    About 85 percent of the people who smoke wish they could stop, and yet they have to go through the agony of quitting. Read the following text and know more about the hazards of smoking, some valuable precautions against falling into tobacco abuse.

    In 1988, Surgeon General C. Everett Koop declared that cigarettes are as addictive as heroin or cocaine. Scientists and smokers who have tried to quit have known for a long time that smoking is addictive. They have said that smokers are hooked on their own kind of drug, nicotine. However, with this new declaration, it is clearer that smoking is a medical problem. When a smoker who tries to stop has a difficult time, it is not a sign of weakness. Smoking is more than just a bad habit such as eating too much sweet food.

    If this is the case, why do so many people start in the first place? Do they fear being different? Do they think smoking will relax them? Do they hope that smoking will help them cover up their awkwardness and shyness? Do they worry that they will be called "chicken" if they don't smoke? What can you say when someone accuses you of being afraid to smoke? There are some easy answers, whether you are being pushed to smoke tobacco or marijuana.

    Molly learned a good answer through a skit that was part of a so-called inoculation1 program in her social-studies class. In the skit Molly's friends Bill, Mary, and Tim played the parts of teenagers who smoked. Molly's character was someone who had decided not to smoke and resisted being branded a weirdo when she refused a cigarette that was offered to her.

    In the skit, Molly walked over to talk with Bill, Mary, and Tim, who were standing together with their backs toward her. Molly hadn't realized they were smoking until she joined them. Tim offered Molly a cigarette, but she turned it down.

    "Come on, Molly," taunted Bill. "Don't be chicken. Join the group."

    Molly refused to be baited. Instead, she laughed and said, "I would be more of a chicken if I smoked just to impress you." Then she smiled at Bill and quickly steered the conversation to another subject.

    Molly and other people in her class who did not want to be pressured into smoking practiced this straightforward and simple refusal many times.

    Through this process known as inoculation, many school programs are toughening up young people who don't want to start smoking. Much as people can be inoculated against germs, they can be protected from the social pressures that encourage them to smoke. Boys and girls who have not yet started smoking can be exposed to a weak dose of "social germs" and thus learn the necessary skills to resist stronger pressure from their peers.

    The inoculation method demonstrated in the skit starring Molly and her friends is called role playing. Actually, role playing is used as a way to prepare people for many kinds of situations. Secret service men, FBI agents, sheriffs, detectives, and a wide variety of specialists who work with people are trained this way. In a totally nonthreatening environment, participants can rehearse skills that can be used in more highly pressured situations when their emotions might interfere with their intentions. Role playing is a way of making certain that one can stay in control, and it is especially helpful for those who do not want to be talked into smoking.

    Molly's class practiced role playing in a variety of skits. In one of them, her classmate John played the part of a boy who encounters some people he barely knows at a party. John isn't at the gathering long before he discovers that he is the only non-smoker. He wants to feel accepted, but he really doesn't want to start smoking.

    Someone in the skit remarks, "Everyone smokes. Why don't you?"

    John mentions to his new acquaintances the trouble that his brother is having trying to quit smoking. He puts the cigarette down without lighting it and remarks casually that he doesn't want to go through the agony of quitting. The boy who offered the cigarette to John admits that for three months he has been trying to stop smoking. John smiles. He knows that most of the people who smoke wish they had never started. John feels good about himself.

    Sue practices dealing with an angry smoker in a skit that involves her waiting in line at the movies. Someone in front of her is blowing smoke in her face, and Sue makes a gesture that indicates her annoyance, but the smoker ignores it. Finally Sue speaks up and asks the person not to blow the smoke in her direction. The smoker gets angry and tells Sue to grow up. She practices some reasonable arguments she can use if she ever really finds herself in such a situation.

    In another skit, health hazards are emphasized by having one person play the part of a doctor who has the unpleasant task of telling a man he must stop smoking because he has developed lung cancer. And in still another skit, a person who is struggling for breath because of a serious disease called emphysema begs the doctor to help him stop the smoking that contributed to his illness. He seems unable to quit on his own despite the discomfort and seriousness of the disease.

    A very popular skit is one in which a son or daughter tries to persuade a parent to stop smoking. One of the arguments used by the young people points out that more than a hundred life-insurance companies offer special rates for nonsmokers because their life expectancy is greater. 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.

    Role playing is just one part of anti-smoking inoculation. Another part involves examining the reasons why you do not want to begin smoking. Some of these may be: avoiding bad breath, reduced athletic stamina, stained teeth, and smelly clothing; not wanting to get hooked; and wanting control of your own actions; a sense of well-being today and good health tomorrow.
    One television message points out the fact that smoking is bad for your looks. It shows a beautiful woman lying on a couch smoking her cigarette. She gradually turns into an old hag. The scientific reason for wrinkles caused by smoking is well-known, even though the wrinkles do not appear as fast as they do in the television spot. Smoking reduces the circulation of the blood to the skin, causing deeper-than-normal wrinkles at the outer edge of the eyes. Wrinkles appear around the lips prematurely, too, and, in time the skin of a heavy smoker tends to be yellow-gray rather than a rosy, healthy color.

    In today's world smoking is no longer considered socially acceptable by the majority of people, so social problems might be included in a list of reasons for not starting to smoke.

    Finding a seat in the smoking section of a plane, train, or other area can be inconvenient. Today, smoking is forbidden in many indoor areas, and in some cases smokers have been asked to put out their cigarettes outdoors. When a smoking ban was announced on one airline, the passengers cheered. Even where smoking is permitted, nicotine addicts are beginning to feel like outcasts. In restaurants, they try to wave the smoke away from their nonsmoking friends. When they ask for permission to smoke in a friend's home, they are embarrassed to watch the friend hunt for an ashtray. Many friends just say no to a request for permission to smoke in their homes. Some smokers steal a few puffs on the street before eating some breath mints. At the office, they slink into hallways, bathrooms, and stairwells. Certainly, social acceptance seems like a poor entry for a list of reasons for beginning to smoke.

    An increasing number of companies refuse to hire people who smoke. This practice is legal even though it is not legal to refuse a person on the basis of age, race, or religion. Since most people find it difficult to stop smoking once they start, and some find it impossible even though it has been responsible for their lung cancer or other life-threatening illnesses, students who are being inoculated against smoking often ask why anyone starts to smoke.

    Many girls and boys who do not know much about smoking begin to smoke because some friends pressure them to do so. Some very young people who know about the problems of smokers believe that they will not become addicted. As in the cases mentioned earlier, they feel certain that the problems won't happen to them. 

    Feeling more grown-up is another reason young people give for smoking. However, using smoking as a rite of passage to the grown-up world is becoming less popular. Intelligent people no longer consider smoking a symbol of adulthood, since most adults who smoke wish they had never started.

    Another once-common reason for starting to smoke is also disappearing. At one time, young smokers were believed to be rejecting the authority of their parents. Study after study has shown, however, that parents who smoke are likely to have children who smoke. In fact, teenagers who have two parents who smoke are twice as likely to smoke as those with nonsmoking parents. Smoking by these young people can hardly be considered a form of adolescent rebellion.

    "Everybody smokes," is a statement that is often made by smokers who want others to join them, but statistics show that it is further from the truth than it ever has been. Only about 19 percent of high school seniors smoke daily. And as more and more young people inoculate themselves against developing the habit, and as more nonsmokers fight for their rights to breathe fresh air, the anti-smoking trend should continue to grow.

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课文一

反对吸烟的角色扮演

    吸烟者当中大约有85%的人希望自己能够戒烟,然而他们却不得不经历戒烟的痛苦。阅读下面的文章你会对吸烟的危害有更多的了解，并知道一些有效预防陷入吸烟恶习的措施。

    1988年，美国美国卫生部长C·埃佛莱特·库普宣称，香烟与海洛因和可卡因一样具有致瘾性。研究人员以及曾试图戒烟的吸烟者早就知道吸烟会上瘾。他们说 ，吸烟者给他们自己的那种毒品即尼古丁勾上了。不过，随着这一新的告示公诸于众，人们更加清楚，吸烟是一个医学问题。一个试图戒烟的吸烟者有戒烟困难时 ，那并不是意志薄弱的表现。吸烟不仅仅只是和吃过多甜食一样的坏习惯。

    既然如此，为什么会有这么多的人先要吸烟呢?他们是不是害怕与众不同?是不是认为吸烟会令他们放松?是不是希望吸烟能帮助他们掩饰自己的笨拙与羞怯?是不是担心不吸香烟会被人唤作“胆小鬼”?当某人责怪你说你不敢吸烟时 ，你如何作答?不论当别人是在诱使你吸上烟草，还是吸食大麻时，都有一些容易的应付方法。

    莫莉从一出小品短剧学会了一种巧妙的对应之策，这出短剧是她社会研究班一个名为预防接种课程的组成部分之一。在短剧中莫莉的朋友比尔，玛丽和提姆扮演吸烟的青少年。莫莉扮演的角色则是一个决心不吸烟、同时也不想在拒绝他人递上的香烟时被称为怪人的人。

    在小品里，莫莉走上前去同比尔、玛丽和提姆交谈，他们三人正站在一块，背朝着莫莉。莫莉直到加入他们当中之后才意识到他们在抽烟．提姆向莫莉递上一支烟，但她谢绝了。

    “好啦，莫莉，”比尔奚落道。“别做胆小鬼了，和大伙儿一块儿来吧。”

    莫莉拒绝上勾．她笑道，“假如我只是为了给你留下好印象而吸烟，我就更是一个胆小鬼。”接着，她对着比尔微笑，很快地把交谈引向另一个话题。

    莫莉与她班级里其他不想被迫吸烟的同学，多次练习这种直截了当的简单拒绝方式。

    通过这种名为“预防接种”的过程，许多学校的课程正培养那些不愿开始吸烟的年青人的抵抗力。如同人们能够通过接种疫苗来抵御细菌那样，他们也可以获得保护躲开诱使他们去吸烟的社会压力。还没有开始吸香烟的少男少女们可以接触微量的“社会病菌”，以便具备必要的技能去抵制来自他们同龄人的更大压力。

    莫莉及其好友们主演的小品短剧里展示的预防接种法，叫做角色扮演。事实上，角色扮演正被用作让人们准备应付多种情况的一种方式。谍报人员、联邦调查局特工、行政长官、侦探，以及大量各色各样与人打交道的专业人员，都以这种方法接受培训。参加者可以在一个全无威胁的环境中演练这些技巧，以便在一些情感可能影响意愿的压力更大的场合中使用。角色扮演是确保人能够自控的一种方法，对那些不愿意被劝烟的人特别有用。

    莫莉的班在多种小品短剧中练习角色扮演。其中一个小品里，她的同学约翰扮演一个男孩子，他在聚会上刚刚认识一些人。约翰参加这一聚会没多久便发现，自己是其中唯一的不吸烟者。他想被周围的人接受，但真地不想开始抽烟。

    剧中，有人说道，“大伙儿都吸烟，你干吗不呢？”

    约翰向新结识的人讲他的哥哥因为试图戒烟而遇到的麻烦。约翰放下那支香烟，没有点燃它，然后不经意地说他不想经历那种戒烟之苦。向约翰递烟的那个男生也承认，他试图戒烟已经三个月了。约翰笑了。他知道大多数吸烟者希望自己未曾开始吸烟。约翰为自己而庆幸。

    苏则在一出短剧里演练如何对付一个火气很冲的吸烟者，剧中她正在影院外排队。苏前边有人朝着她的脸喷云吐雾，苏做了个手势表示不满，但吸烟者视若无睹。最后苏直言相告，要那人不要冲她这边喷吐烟雾。吸烟的人怒气冲冲，教训苏说她别那么孩子气。苏练了一些如果真的身处这种境况时可以用得上的据理以争的话。

    另一出短剧强调了吸烟对于健康的危害性。剧中，一个人扮演医生，不得不去完成一项棘手的任务——告诉一个男子他必须戒烟，因为他已患了肺癌。还有一出短剧中，一个人因为生了肺气肿这一重病而呼吸困难，央求医生帮助他戒掉促成他这一病痛的烟瘾。尽管已重病缠身，痛苦不堪，但他似乎仅靠自己的力量仍无法戒烟。

    有一出很受欢迎的小品，演的是一个儿子或女儿劝说家长戒烟。年轻人运用的论据之一指出：有一百多家人寿保险公司为非吸烟者特惠赔付费率，因为这些人预期寿命更长。孩子们问父母：为什么他们一方面花费那么多精力养生保命，一方面却明知故犯地让自己陷于如此自戕自害的行为当中？

    角色扮演只是反吸烟预防接种的一部分。另一部分是考察你为何不想开始吸烟的理由。其中的一些可能是：避免口臭、运动耐力减低、牙齿焦黄以及衣饰沾附烟臭味；不愿意上钩上瘾；想控制自己的行为；今日生活好，明日身体好的认识。

    有一个电视节目指出，吸烟对你的容颜有害。节目画面上有一个美貌女子斜倚在长沙发上吸香烟。她逐渐变成一个丑老太婆。即使产生皱纹实际上不象电视画面表现的那样快，吸烟导致皱纹的科学道理也已广为人知。吸烟减缓流向皮肤的血液循环速度，导致眼睛外围形成较之通常情形要深的皱纹。皱纹也会过早地出现在嘴唇四周，并且随着时间的推移，过度吸烟者的皮肤会变成灰黄色而不是健康的玫瑰色。

    在当今的世界上，吸烟不再被大多数人认为是社会交际可以接受的行为，因此，社会问题也可以纳入一系列不吸烟的理由之中。

    要想在飞机上、火车上或其它地方中的吸烟区里找个座儿会相当不便。今天，许多室内区域禁止吸烟，有些情况下，在户外吸烟的人也被要求掐灭香烟。每当一家航空公司宣布了戒烟令，乘客们便都叫好。即使在允许吸烟的地方，尼古丁的“瘾士”们也开始觉得自己遭人嫌弃。在饭店里，他们得尽力把烟雾从他们那些不吸烟的朋友们身边驱散开。在朋友家里，当他们请求允许吸烟时，看着朋友忙不迭地找烟灰缸，他们也被弄得颇为难堪。许多朋友干脆直截了当地拒绝来客在其家里吸烟的请求。有些吸烟者在大街上偷偷吸几口烟，完后再嚼食几块去口臭的口香糖。在写字楼里，他们灰溜溜躲进过道、洗手间、楼梯井。毫无疑问，将社交场合列入可以抽烟的范围，理由似乎站不住脚。

    越来越多的公司拒绝雇用吸烟者。这么做合法，尽管因为年龄、种族、宗教的缘故拒绝录员工是违法的。既然大多数人发现一旦开始吸烟就很难戒除烟瘾，而且既然有许多人明知吸烟是导致肺癌与其它危及生命的疾病的罪魁祸首，却仍然感到戒掉抽烟习惯难上加难，那么，正在接受反吸烟防范教育的学生们经常会问：为什么有人要抽烟呢？

    许多对吸烟所知甚少的少男少女开始吸烟，是因为朋友给他们施加压力。一些了解吸烟者面临的麻烦的年轻的人认为，他们自己不会上瘾。如同前文提到过的情形一样，他们确信那些问题和麻烦不会发生到自己身上。

    想要获得更多的成人感是青年人吸烟的另一条理由。然而，用吸烟来作为通往成人世界的仪式，这已不流行了。明智的人们不再认为吸烟是成年人的象征，因为大多数吸烟的成年人希望自己从来也不曾开始接触香烟。

    开始吸烟的另一条曾经流行的理由也正在消亡。曾经有一阵子，人们认为年青的吸烟者们是在挑战自己父母的权威。众多研究显示，吸烟的父母很有可能有吸烟的孩子。事实上，父母都吸烟的青少年们吸烟的可能性是那些父母不吸烟的青少年的两倍。这些年青人的吸烟行为很难被理解为一种青春期的反叛。

    “人人都吸烟”是那些想要别人也一起吸烟的烟民们常说的话，可是统计数字表明，这句话现在比以往任何时候更不符合事实。只有大约19%的高中生天天抽烟。而随着越来越多的青年人给自己接种预防吸烟恶习，随着更多的非吸烟者为自己能呼吸新鲜空气的权利而努力，反吸烟的潮流会继续壮大。

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Text 2

What Most Smokers Don't Know

    Bill is a thirty-five-year-old father whose friends are concerned about the large number of cigarettes he smokes each day. He says he knows about the health hazards but would rather smoke than live longer. Bill is tired of hearing nonsmokers complain about having to share the air that he pollutes. His latest answer to nonsmokers amuses him greatly. When someone complains about the smoke in the air, Bill suggests that the person thinks of him as a human filter.

    "Cigarette smoke is a very complex material containing extremely tiny particles that are breathed in by the smoker so that they reach the farthest parts of the lung," Bill says. "Each time I smoke, I breathe in about a million particles for each cubic centimeter. Since only about 20 percent of these particles are exhaled, 80 percent of them remain in my lungs. So, you see, I am really a human filter."

    This idea just reinforces the resolve of the nonsmokers. They laugh at Bill. If they realized that the particles from just two cigarettes an hour accumulate to an amount greater than that considered safe by the Environmental Protection Agency, however, they might protest even harder to try to stop Bill from fouling the air they breathe.

    Most smokers are vaguely aware of the health hazards of smoking. Still, many indulge in a kind of magical thinking in which they are certain that the things that happen to other smokers will not happen to them. For example, more than half of the young people who smoke believe that the dangers of smoking are exaggerated for their age group. And many believe that all of the health hazards associated with smoking happen only to older people. These young people are unaware of the many short-term effects of smoking.

    Almost everyone knows that dirt goes into the lungs along with the air one breathes. Particles are trapped by mucus, a sticky material that is secreted by glands in the walls of the air passage. Every healthy person's lungs contain short hairlike bristles known as cilia, which sweep up and out, pushing mucus, germs, and dirt away. Even one cigarette slows down the cilia that work to sweep up the dirt and germs, and heavy smoking destroys them completely.

    If the cilia are not strong enough to sweep away the accumulation of "garbage" in the lungs people cough or sneeze to blast the foreign material out. Perhaps you have noticed that people who smoke a lot also cough a lot—and some of them don't even know why.

    Since cilia that have been damaged can no longer act like brooms to sweep germs, mucus, and dirt out of the lungs, it is not surprising to find that smokers are sick in bed eighty-eight million more days each year than nonsmokers.

    Of course, the longer you smoke the deadlier are the effects. But it doesn't take years for smoking to hurt you. Students in one class project were taught by the school nurse to measure a person's vital sign, before and after he smoked just one cigarette. It was obvious to them from their research that this small amount of smoking sped up the heartbeat, increased blood pressure, decreased lung capacity, and caused a drop in the skin temperature of fingers and toes.

    Most smokers do not think much about why they smoke. They are aware of the fact that nicotine affects the central nervous system, producing pleasurable effects. Some smokers know that nicotine increases the brain activity pattern associated with relaxation and that in low doses it can stimulate certain nerve cells that produce feelings of alertness. These are some of the reasons people continue to smoke. Other reasons include the association of smoking with pleasant activities such as talking on the phone, relaxing after dinner coffee, socializing, and just plain relaxing. But most smokers do not know that tolerance begins with the first dose of nicotine. This means that, up to a point, increased doses are needed to produce the same effect. The nicotine provides a real "hit" to the brain, producing immediate pleasure.

    Consider the case of Jean who said that she did not want to give up smoking because it gave her so much pleasure. She believed she could stop when she chose to do so, but the nurses who saw her light a cigarette when she left the intensive care unit after her heart attack did not agree. Jean is an intelligent, responsible adult, but she still refuses to believe that smoking had anything to do with her heart attack. Not all smokers become addicted to cigarettes the way Jean is, but for those who are, quitting is very difficult.

    Some smokers know that tobacco smoke yellows teeth─especially if they are familiar with those radio and TV ads for a tooth polish made especially to clean away the stain on smokers' teeth. But many smokers do not realize how unpleasant their breath and their clothing smell. Nonsmokers who enter smokers' homes often notice that the odor has penetrated the furnishings. More than one person has wondered why women who smoke bother to buy expensive perfumes, since the fragrances are overshadowed by the aroma of tobacco smoke. But smokers tend to be oblivious to the smelly side effects of their habit because continued smoking often diminishes their sense of smell─and their sense of taste, for that matter.

    Many smokers who see No Smoking signs in their dentists' offices think that the signs have been placed there for the dentists' comfort. These people don't realize that smoking delays the healing of mouth sores and contributes to gum disease, a condition that often leads to tooth loss.

    Carbon monoxide is seldom blamed for damage to a smoker's health, even though it has an adverse effect on people of all ages. This gas is now known to be one of the most harmful ingredients in cigarette smoke. It literally drives the oxygen out of the red blood cells. The level of carbon monoxide in a smoker's blood is four times higher than normal, and it can be as much as fifteen times higher in the blood of heavy smokers.

    While carbon monoxide is harmful to everyone, it is especially damaging to people with heart or lung disease. And a pregnant woman who smokes two packs of cigarettes a day blocks off 40 percent of the oxygen to her unborn child. Carbon monoxide is thought to be the most important factor in causing spontaneous abortion, stillbirth, and reduced birth weight in babies.

    Smoking hazards for future parents are better known for women than for men. However, some studies indicate that men who smoke tobacco are more likely than nonsmokers to produce abnormal sperm, and this can lead to infertility or cause birth defects.

    85 percent of all lung cancer cases in the United States are caused by smoking. Cigarette smoking has been established as a significant cause of cancer of a great variety. In 1989, the government concluded that half of all strokes in people under the age of sixty-five stem from smoking. According to the U.S. Public Health Service, cigarette smokers have a death rate from coronary heart disease 70 percent higher than that for nonsmokers. Smokers are 50 percent more likely to be hospitalized than nonsmokers.

    Although the tobacco companies disagree with many of the medical findings, researchers, physicians, and public health workers from more than eighty countries have made more than 50 000 studies on smoking and health. The great majority of these studies conclude that cigarette smoking either contributes to or is the primary cause of illness and death in about two dozen serious diseases. In a federal report on the health consequences of smoking, Dr. C. Everett Koop said that cigarette smoking was responsible for one in six preventable deaths in the United States.

    Most people have noticed the warning labels on cigarette ads and packages, but smokers do not seem to pay much attention to them. You might find out what most smokers do not know if you ask a smoker what the warnings say.

    The following warnings are rotated every three months:

    Smoking Causes Lung Cancer, Heart Disease, Emphysema, and May Complicate Pregnancy.

    Pregnant Women Who Smoke May Risk Fatal Injury and Premature Birth.

    Cigarette Smoke Contains Carbon Monoxide.

    Quitting Smoking Now Greatly Reduces Serious Health Risks.

    Since the 1988 Surgeon General's Report that emphasized the addictive nature of nicotine, the following warning was suggested: Warning: Smoking is Addictive. Once You Start You May Not Be Able To Stop.

    The most important message is obvious: Don't Start to Smoke.

(1432 words)  TOP

课文二

大多数吸烟者不知道的事情

   比尔是一个35岁的父亲，他的朋友正为他每天抽掉大量香烟而担忧。他自己说他知道对健康的危害，但他宁可抽烟也不要活得更长。比尔已听够了非吸烟者埋怨不得不呼吸被他污染了的空气。他对不吸烟者最后一次回应令自己很开心。有人抱怨空气中的烟雾时，比尔建议，那人应该把他当作一个活人过滤器看待。

    “香烟烟雾是一种非常复杂的物质，含有极其微小的颗粒，被抽烟者吸入后到达肺部最深处，”比尔说道。“我每次吸烟，吸入每立方厘米的气体大约有一百万个微粒。因为这些微粒中大约只有20%被呼出来，它们之中的80%就留在我的肺里。所以，你看，我真正是一个活人过滤器呢。”

    这种说法反倒更加坚定了周围那些非吸烟者的决心。他们嘲笑比尔。但是，如果他们知道：一小时里只需两根香烟，微粒累积达到的数量便已经超出环境保护署认定的安全值，那么他们或许会更强烈地阻止比尔污染他们呼吸的空气。

    大多数烟民隐约地知道吸烟有害健康。然而，许多人耽于一种幻想，以为发生到其他吸烟者身上的事肯定不会发生到自己身上。举例来说，年青的吸烟者中有多半的人认为，针对他们那个年龄组列出的吸烟危害是夸大其辞。还有许多人认为，所有与吸烟危害只发生于老年人身上。这些年青人对抽烟的许多短期影响一无所知。

    几乎人人都知道，灰尘是随同人吸入的空气进入肺部的。小颗粒被痰液所粘附。痰是由气管壁上的腺体所分泌出来的一种粘性物质。每一个健康人的肺叶都含有短短的、毛发状的须茬，名叫纤毛。它们向上、向外扫动，将痰液、细菌、以及尘埃推出去。只消一根卷烟便可减缓将尘埃与细菌清扫出去的纤毛的作用，而过量抽烟则会将它们破坏殆尽。

    如果纤毛不够强壮，不能清除肺部积聚的“垃圾”，人们就会咳嗽或打喷嚏以便将异物猛烈地弄出去。或许你已注意到：烟抽得凶的人咳嗽也多——而他们中有一些人甚至还不明白何以如此。

   既然已遭破坏的纤毛不能再象扫帚一样发挥作用，不能将细菌、痰液与尘埃从肺部清除出去，看到以下事实也就不足为奇：每年吸烟者较之非吸烟者卧病在床要多出8800万天。

    当然，吸烟史越是长久，影响也就越致命。但是，吸烟对你产生伤害，并不需经年累月。在一个班级活动中，学校的护士教学生们分别测量一个人仅吸了一根香烟之前与之后的重要生命体征。学生们从自己的研究明显地看到，这少量的烟雾加快了心跳，升高了血压，减少了肺活量，并降低了手指与脚趾皮肤的温度。

    大多数烟民对他们自己为何要吸烟不作多想。他们知道尼古丁会作用于中枢神经系统，产生欣悦感。有些吸烟者知道尼古丁增强与精神放松有关的大脑活动模式，还知道小剂量的尼古丁能刺激产生机敏警觉感的神经细胞。这些便是人们继续吸烟的理由的一部分。其它理由还包括：吸烟与诸如电话交谈、餐后咖啡时间的放松、社会交际以及单纯的放松等令人愉快的活动有联系。但是大多数吸烟者不知道耐受性从吸入第一剂量尼古丁时便已开始。这意味着：到达了一个临界点后，需要加大吸入量才能产生同样的效果。尼古丁对大脑真地提供一种“刺激”，产生即时的快感。

    再来考察一下琼的情形。她说她不想戒烟，因为吸烟给予她如此巨大的快乐。她认为，自己愿意戒烟的时候，会把它戒掉的。但是，她心脏病发作后接受特别护理，离开时又点燃了一支香烟，看到这些的护士们却持不同看法。琼是一个有头脑、有责任感的成年人，但她却仍然拒绝相信吸烟与她的心脏病发作有任何关系。并不是所有的烟民对香烟的上瘾程度如同琼一样深，不过对那些烟瘾确实那么深的人而言，戒烟已是非常困难 。

    有些吸烟者知道烟草会熏黄牙齿——特别是如果他们熟悉广播或电视上那些专门为消除烟民的牙斑齿渍而特制的牙齿清洗洁白剂的广告的话。然而许多吸烟者并没有意识到自己的呼吸与服饰上的气味有多么难闻。不吸烟的人走入烟民的居所常常会注意到那气味已经渗透到了家具物品之中。不止一人曾纳闷：既然香水的芬芳已被烟草气味所遮蔽，为什么女烟民还要费事去买昂贵的香水？但是烟民们往往不知道其习惯带来的异味这些副作用，因为不停地吸烟削弱了他们的嗅觉——在这件事上还有他们的味觉。

    许多在牙科诊所里见到“请勿吸烟”标志的烟民们以为，这些标识张贴在那儿是为了牙医们的利益。这些人没有认识到，吸烟会延缓口腔溃疡的愈合，并会诱发腭部疾病，这种状况病经常导致牙齿脱落。

    人们极少把吸烟者健康状况恶化归咎于一氧化碳，尽管它对各种年龄的人都有负面影响。现在已知这种气体是香烟烟雾中最有害的成分之一。不夸张地说，它将氧气从红血球中驱赶出去。一个吸烟者血液中一氧化碳的水平比正常值高出四倍，而在重度抽烟者的血液里，则可能高出十五倍之多。

    一氧化碳对人人有害，尤其对心脏病及肺病患者有害。一天吸两包烟的孕妇阻碍了未出生的小孩40%的氧气输入量。一氧化碳被认为是造成流产、死胎及出生婴儿体重偏低的罪魁。




    对将要为人父母的人来说，一般人较多了解吸烟对女性的危害，而较少知道对男性的危害。然而，一些研究表明：吸烟的男子较之不吸烟的男子更有可能产生不正常的精子，从而会导致不孕症或引起婴儿先天性缺陷。

    在美国，肺癌病例的85%是吸烟引起的，并且吸烟已被证实是多种癌症的主要诱因。1989年，政府得出结论，65岁以下人群中风病例有一半源自吸烟。根据美国公共卫生健康署的报告，吸烟者冠心病的死亡率比非吸烟者高出75%。吸烟者住院接受治疗的可能性比非吸烟者高出50%。

    尽管烟草公司对许多医学发现持异议，八十多个国家的研究人员、内科医生、以及公共卫生工作人员已经开展了五万多项吸烟与健康关系的研究项目。这些研究项目中绝大多数得出结论：二十多种重大疾病中，吸烟要么是发病与死亡的诱因之一，要么是罪魁祸首。在一份有关吸烟对健康危害的联邦政府报告中，C·埃佛莱特·库普博士指出，美国每发生六例本可防止的死亡之中，便有一例归因于吸烟。

    大多数人已经注意到了香烟广告与包装上的警示，但是烟民们似乎对它们不予关注。如果你问一个吸烟者那些警告语里都说了些什么，就会发现大多数烟民们不知道。

    以下的告诫语每三个月轮换：

    吸烟引起肺癌、心脏病、肺气肿，并可能使妊娠过程出现复杂情况。

    吸烟孕妇会导致致命伤害与早产。

    香烟烟雾中含有一氧化碳。

    即刻戒烟会大大降低罹患重大疾病之险。

    自从美国美国卫生部长那份强调尼古丁致瘾性的报告1988年公布之后，又建议了如下警示语：当心：吸烟有瘾，一旦吸上，也许欲罢不能。

    最重要的信息是显而易见的：不要开始吸烟。

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