【新唐人2013年09月12日訊】 (美国之音電)
- 禮節美語-263 Anti-smoking campaigns 1
Marissa 早上一到辦公室，就開始跟同事 Hank 發牢騷。
Marissa: I hate walking into our building in the morning! – All the smokers stand around the building’s entrance puffing away….I can’t take it! Sorry….I’m just a little bit worked up.
Hank: That’s okay. I understand. A lot of people really hate smoke.
M: I’m glad they banned smoking inside the office, but I wish I didn’t have to smell it while walking on the street. It makes me feel nauseous. I simply can’t understand why a person would want to smoke.
H: well….I used to smoke. I quit about 20 years ago.
M: Yeah…I would assume at this point in history – especially given what we know about the dangers of smoking – most people would have quit already!
Marissa 說，每天早上來上班，大樓門口都有很多煙民在 puffing away 吞雲吐霧，she can’t take it. 實在讓她受不了，煙味讓她覺得反胃 nauseous, nauseous is spelled n-a-u-s-e-o-u-s, nauseous 意思是噁心，反胃。她覺得，現在吸煙的危害已經眾所周知，怎麼還會有人吸煙，真是讓人匪夷所思。Hank 20年前也抽煙，我們看看他是怎麼說的。
H: You know the saying, “old habits die hard." I think I would add that bad habits die even harder. You know, you could always move to Bhutan.
M: Bhutan? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it.
H: It’s a small kingdom located in the Himalayan Mountains….near Nepal. In 2004, Bhutan banned tobacco altogether.
M: Cool! Did it work? If I go to Bhutan will I never smell cigarette smoke?
H: Actuall….no. I read a recent report that said there’s a lot of loopholes in the law….and if you go to restaurants and bars you’ll still see lots of people lighting up.
M: (Sighs) So I guess I’m just have to learn to put up with it.
俗話說得好，old habits die hard. 積習難改。Hank 覺得，壞習慣更難改。他開玩笑，建議 Marissa 搬到 Bhutan不丹去，因為不丹2004年就全面禁止煙草了。不過，這項法律其實還是有很多可以鑽的空子，loopholes, 所以，在不丹的餐館和酒吧裡，還是能看到很多人 light up 點煙抽。
H: Things are changing, however. Smoking rates are dropping all around the world. Just the other day there was a newspaper report that said New Zealand is raising prices on a pack of cigarettes to US$15 by the year 2016!
M: US$15!? Wow! That’s really expensive. But is there any proof that high prices are a deterrent?
H: There have been quite a few studies that show that every time a country raises cigarette taxes and prices, a certain percentage of smokers quit.
不過，情況也在逐漸向好的方向轉變， Smoking rates are dropping all around the world. 世界各地的吸煙人口比例都在下降。Hank 看到一篇報導說，新西蘭2016年之前，要把一包香煙的價格提高到15美元的天價。Mimi 問，有證據證明漲價能起到抑製作用嗎？ Deterrent is spelled d-e-t-e-r-r-e-n-t, deterrent 意思是起到阻止和威懾效果的因素。Hank 說，有不少研究都發現，一個國家每一次給香煙漲價或是提高稅率，都會有一部分煙民戒煙。
