【英语语言学习】香烟的诱惑

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

 

So people still smoke in spite of the many good reasons not to. It certainly is addictive¹, but the cigarette also has a certain allure². Think of a man leaning into to light a lady's cigarette, or the pack preferred in a tense moment. Cigarettes are part of our culture. Richard Klein has written a book about that, "Cigarettes are Sublime³."

He joins us from New York City. Thanks so much for being with us.

 

RICHARD KLEIN: It's my pleasure.

 

SIMON: One of the things people notice when they see an old movie these days is that everybody's smoking. And in this book you talk about "Casablanca," for example, which a lot of us grow up thinking is a kind of a common cultural experience.

 

KLEIN: "Casablanca" is a kind of dictionary or sort of encyclopedia⁴ of ways of smoking. But the film begins, you may recall, with a smoking cigarette in an ashtray⁵ and all of a sudden we see a hand sort of pick it up and bring it to the lips of Humphrey Bogart who takes like a really deep puff⁶ on this cigarette and then you see him sort of fight off the nicotine⁷ high and then blow out this gorgeous stream of smoke at the beginning of the film, and that tells you everything you need to know.

SIMON: Yeah. And it's hard to think of Rick's Cafe without seeing smoke.

 

KLEIN: Oh, absolutely. It's smoking, and as you pointed⁸ out, there's that remarkable⁹ silent moment when two very beautiful people stand in profile against the hazy¹⁰ background of the smoky nightclub and the man lights a match and the woman's face is suddenly illuminated¹¹ and they look into each other's eyes and smoke sort of fills the screen. It's a gorgeous moment.

 

SIMON: And I guess we should remind ourselves, too, there was a time in popular entertainment when, let's say in a medical drama, somebody noticed a spot on a lung in an x-ray. The doctors would get together and talk about it while smoking.

 

KLEIN: Innocently, absolutely. In "Dr. Kildare," which was an early TV series, in the very first episode Dr. Kildare goes dashing up the steps of the hospital and before he opens up the main doors he stops to get a pack of cigarettes from the machine that's in the lobby there. And at every crucial moment, the doctors can be seen to be smoking.

 

You know, doctors have known for hundreds of years, they can see the difference between their patients who smoke and the patients who don't. One of the great poets in the 19th Century who considered himself to be a cigarette dandy spoke¹² about this murderous pleasure. He knew already that it was bad for his health.

 

SIMON: Danger is part of the allure of which we speak.

 

KLEIN: And that's precisely¹³ what allowed me to say that cigarettes are sublime. It wasn't sort of intended to be a joke. It was intended to refer to the strict philosophical¹⁴ definition of the sublime as you find it in Kant's "Third Critique" where he associates a certain kind of aesthetic¹⁵ pleasure with the experience of a danger overcome, of a confrontation¹⁶ with mortality with infinity¹⁷ that you nevertheless survive. And what I try to argue is that every time you take a puff you're ingesting a small bit of poison, but it's that poison that you quickly learn to love.

 

SIMON: I think a lot of people listening to us might wonder, well, if smoking's so all fired - pun intended - great, why did you give it up?

 

KLEIN: It's bad for you. It's poison. It's not good at all. But on the other hand, it's got a lot of advantages and a lot of benefits and it does a lot of things for you at certain points in your life, I found. But the older you get, the more it hurts your body. And eventually, I think, most people will find the pain outweighs¹⁸ the satisfactions. But that doesn't mean there aren't satisfactions and pleasures associated with it.

 

SIMON: Richard Klein who is a professor emeritus¹⁹ at Cornell University and author of the book, "Cigarettes are Sublime." Thanks very much for being with us.

 

KLEIN: Thank you very much.

 

(SOUNDBITE FROM THE MOVIE, "CASABLANCA" - As Time Goes By)

 

INGRID BERGMAN: (as Ilsa Lund) - Sing it, Sam.

 

DOOLEY WILSON: (as Sam) (Singing) You must remember this, a kiss is just a kiss...     (Rick's Cafe : As Time Goes By)

 

SIMON: And tomorrow on WEEKEND EDITION SUNDAY, we'll hear from a country where smoking is as popular as ever - Greece - where more than 40 percent of the population lights up even though smoking is banned in bars and cafes. And you are listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.

1 addictive   

adj.(吸毒等)使成瘾的，成为习惯的

参考例句：

• The problem with video game is that they're addictive.电子游戏机的问题在于它们会使人上瘾。
• Cigarettes are highly addictive.香烟很容易使人上瘾。

2 allure   

n.诱惑力，魅力；vt.诱惑，引诱，吸引

参考例句：

• The window displays allure customers to buy goods.橱窗陈列品吸引顾客购买货物。
• The book has a certain allure for which it is hard to find a reason.这本书有一种难以解释的魅力。

3 sublime   

adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的

参考例句：

• We should take some time to enjoy the sublime beauty of nature.我们应该花些时间去欣赏大自然的壮丽景象。
• Olympic games play as an important arena to exhibit the sublime idea.奥运会，就是展示此崇高理念的重要舞台。

4 encyclopedia   

n.百科全书

参考例句：

• The encyclopedia fell to the floor with a thud.那本百科全书砰的一声掉到地上。
• Geoff is a walking encyclopedia.He knows about everything.杰夫是个活百科全书，他什么都懂。

5 ashtray   

n.烟灰缸

参考例句：

• He knocked out his pipe in the big glass ashtray.他在大玻璃烟灰缸里磕净烟斗。
• She threw the cigarette butt into the ashtray.她把烟头扔进烟灰缸。

6 puff   

n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气

参考例句：

• He took a puff at his cigarette.他吸了一口香烟。
• They tried their best to puff the book they published.他们尽力吹捧他们出版的书。

7 nicotine   

n.(化)尼古丁，烟碱

参考例句：

• Many smokers who are chemically addicted to nicotine cannot cut down easily.许多有尼古丁瘾的抽烟人不容易把烟戒掉。
• Many smokers who are chemically addicted to nicotine cannot cut down easily.许多有尼古丁瘾的抽烟人不容易把烟戒掉。

8 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

9 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

10 hazy   

adj.有薄雾的，朦胧的；不肯定的，模糊的

参考例句：

• We couldn't see far because it was so hazy.雾气蒙蒙妨碍了我们的视线。
• I have a hazy memory of those early years.对那些早先的岁月我有着朦胧的记忆。

11 illuminated   

adj.被照明的；受启迪的

参考例句：

• Floodlights illuminated the stadium. 泛光灯照亮了体育场。
• the illuminated city at night 夜幕中万家灯火的城市

12 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

13 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

14 philosophical   

adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的

参考例句：

• The teacher couldn't answer the philosophical problem.老师不能解答这个哲学问题。
• She is very philosophical about her bad luck.她对自己的不幸看得很开。

15 aesthetic   

adj.美学的，审美的，有美感

参考例句：

• My aesthetic standards are quite different from his.我的审美标准与他的大不相同。
• The professor advanced a new aesthetic theory.那位教授提出了新的美学理论。

16 confrontation   

n.对抗，对峙，冲突

参考例句：

• We can't risk another confrontation with the union.我们不能冒再次同工会对抗的危险。
• After years of confrontation,they finally have achieved a modus vivendi.在对抗很长时间后，他们最后达成安宁生存的非正式协议。

17 infinity   

n.无限，无穷，大量

参考例句：

• It is impossible to count up to infinity.不可能数到无穷大。
• Theoretically,a line can extend into infinity.从理论上来说直线可以无限地延伸。

18 outweighs   

v.在重量上超过( outweigh的第三人称单数 )；在重要性或价值方面超过

参考例句：

• Her need to save money outweighs her desire to spend it on fun. 她省钱的需要比她花钱娱乐的愿望更重要。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Its clarity in algebraic and analytical operations far outweighs any drawbacks. 文化代数和解析运算中的清晰性远远胜过任何缺点。 来自辞典例句

19 emeritus   

adj.名誉退休的

参考例句：

• "Perhaps I can introduce Mr.Lake Kirby,an emeritus professor from Washington University?"请允许我介绍华盛顿大学名誉教授莱克柯尔比先生。
• He will continue as chairman emeritus.他将会继续担任荣誉主席。