2006年VOA标准英语-Fewer U.S. Teens Are Smoking Cigarettes

By Paige Kollock
Washington, D.C
10 January 2006
 
watch Smoking report

Every day, thousands of young people pick up the habit of smoking. But a new report says the number of teen smokers¹ in the United States is actually decreasing.

Brittany Villarreal   
  
Brittany Villarreal wishes she had never smoked. "I want to quit so bad, but it's hard," she says.

According, to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a non-governmental group that tries to protect children from tobacco addiction² and exposure to secondhand smoke, it takes only three cigarettes to become addicted³ to smoking. 

 
Cathy Backinger 
  
An estimated 22 percent of American high school kids smoke, and according to Cathy Backinger, chief of the Tobacco Control Research Branch at the National Cancer Institute in the United States, approximately one-third of young smokers will eventually die from a smoking-related illness.

"Three out of four kids have tried to quit smoking and have failed, and we know that two out of three say that they wish they never started smoking," says Ms. Backinger.

"I'm trying to hard to quit but it's always there,” says Brittany. “It's something that's going to haunt⁴ me for the rest of my life."

  
  
Despite the grim⁵ facts about teen smoking, researchers at the University of Michigan say smoking rates among 8th, 10th, and 12th graders in the U.S. are at their lowest level since 1975. They say the percentage of kids smoking today is far below the peak levels seen in the mid-1990s.

Contributing to that decrease is the high cost of cigarettes, the success of anti-smoking advertisement campaigns, and aggressive school education programs.

  
  
One school in the Northeastern state of Maine is targeting kids as young as elementary school, before they are tempted⁶ by their first cigarette.

Says one elementary school child, "I learned you shouldn't smoke, even if you see other people doing it."

Declining⁷ numbers of young smokers is good news because it means there likely will be fewer adult smokers in the decades ahead.

1 smokers   

吸烟者( smoker的名词复数 )

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。
• Chain smokers don't care about the dangers of smoking. 烟鬼似乎不在乎吸烟带来的种种危害。

2 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

3 addicted   

adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的

参考例句：

• He was addicted to heroin at the age of 17.他17岁的时候对海洛因上了瘾。
• She's become addicted to love stories.她迷上了爱情小说。

4 haunt   

vt.常出没于，使苦恼，萦绕；n.常去的地方

参考例句：

• The area was a haunt of criminals.这个地区是罪犯经常出没的地方。
• The college library is a favorite haunt.大学图书馆是人们喜欢的地方。

5 grim   

adj.严酷的，令人害怕的，不愉快的，讨厌的

参考例句：

• I've had a grim day.我过了不愉快的一天。
• His expression was grim when he told them they had lost their jobs.当他告诉他们说他们已被解雇时，他的表情十分冷酷。

6 tempted   

v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词）

参考例句：

• I was sorely tempted to complain, but I didn't. 我极想发牢骚，但还是没开口。
• I was tempted by the dessert menu. 甜食菜单馋得我垂涎欲滴。

7 declining   

adj.下降的，衰落的

参考例句：

• The nub of the matter is that business is declining. 事情的实质是工商业在萎缩。
• It is encouraging to read that illiteracy is declining. 从读报中了解文盲情况正在好转，这是令人鼓舞的。