2006年VOA标准英语-Fewer U.S. Teens Are Smoking Cigarettes
时间：2019-01-31 作者：英语课 分类：2006年VOA标准英语（一月）
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 smokers 1 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 addiction 2 and exposure to secondhand smoke, it takes only three cigarettes to become addicted 3 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 haunt 4 me for the rest of my life."
Despite the grim 5 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 tempted 6 by their first cigarette.
Says one elementary school child, "I learned you shouldn't smoke, even if you see other people doing it."
Declining 7 numbers of young smokers is good news because it means there likely will be fewer adult smokers in the decades ahead.
- 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。
- 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。
- 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。
- 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。
- 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。
- 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。