第二篇（英译汉） Passage 2 (E—C)
相关词语 Related Words and Expressions
Hastings 黑斯廷斯（地名）
Newcastle 纽卡斯尔（地名）
regular “quitting” session 定期戒烟课
General Certificate of Secondary Education 中等教育普通证书
leaflet 传单
a National No Smoking Day 全国无烟日
If you walk to the far end of any school courtyard in the UK during the lunch break, you will find several teenagers trying to hide their cigarette smoke from the teachers at the other end.
Teenage smoking is a big problem in the UK, even though it is illegal to smoke before you reach 16 years of age. Children start smoking from as young as 11, and over a quarter of 15-year-olds are regular smokers, according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS) in the UK.
Jonathan Williams, a 15-year-old boy from Hastings, on the south east coast of England, started smoking four months ago. “All my friends smoke so I thought I’d try it. I only smoke at weekends when I’m out with my friends,” he said. “It’s easy to buy them because most people my age look 16 anyway. No one can tell the difference between a 15 or 16-year-old.”
Young girls living in the UK are much more likely to smoke than boys. They also smoke more frequently. This is because girls are more likely to “follow the crowd.” They want to feel included.
Jonathan’s sister Paula is 17. She tried her first cigarette when she was just 12. “I didn’t start smoking regularly until a year ago, because I was afraid of my mum finding out,” she said. “But now I’m over 16, there’s nothing she can do, even though she doesn’t approve.”
Parents, teachers and the government are increasingly concerned about this trend. The latest ONS research says that this habit will kill about 1 million of today’s teenagers when they reach middle age.
In Newcastle, in northeast England, the local health authority is working with a secondary school to help teenagers stop smoking. They hold regular “quitting” sessions where students can talk openly about smoking and are given advice about why and how to stop.
Parents and authority figures are also concerned because there seems to be a relationship between smoking and educational achievement. Most students who pass fewer than five General Certificate of Secondary Education exams (GCSEs), which all students must take at the age of 16, are regular smokers. The national average for a good student is nine GCSE passes.
Government campaigns to stop smoking include TV advertisements showing real-life smokers who have cancer. Cigarettes are also very expensive in the UK, due to government taxes. A packet of 20 cigarettes costs around four pounds and fifty pence (about 54 yuan).
Every year, anti-smoking organizations join the government in holding a National No Smoking Day in March. Leaflets with government health warning about the risks of smoking are given out on the streets. Teenagers and adults are encouraged to try one day without smoking, in the hope that this will encourage them to give up forever. But with the government recently delaying plans to ban tobacco advertising in the UK, the trend of teenage smoking is likely to get worse.
