【新唐人2012年12月27日訊】 (美国之音電)
- 禮節美語231-Quit-Smoking-I
Daisy在公司走廊上跟同事Johnny打招呼。
Daisy: Hey Johnny, good to see you! How have you been? I haven’t seen you in almost a month.
Johnny: Eleven days, six hours, 21 minutes, and let me see….twenty something seconds.
D: Umm….eleven what?
J: Eleven days since my last cigarette!
D: Hey…good for you! High five!
Daisy將近一個月沒見到Johnny，Johnny在這期間把煙戒了，戒煙已經持續了 eleven days, six hours, 21 minutes, and twenty something seconds. 11天6小時21分鐘20幾秒。Daisy對Johnny表示讚揚，說 good for you! 有你的。這時候女同事Kathy湊了過來。
Kathy: Good afternoon. What are we celebrating?
D: Johnny here has been trying to quit cigarettes for years!
J: And today I’m almost 2 weeks into my program!
K: Wow, congratulations! I quit 10 years ago, but then again, I was never really a serious smoker.
D: Johnny here was a three-pack-a-day man!
K: You smoked three packs a day??! That’s some hard-core smoking! So…It must have been very difficult to quit.
J: Well, I’ve only been smoke-free for 11 days so I can’t pat myself on the back too much. But yes, it has been really tough…probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.
Kathy說自己是十年前戒的煙，但戒煙前其實抽得也不是很多，I was never a serious smoker. 這一點跟 Johnny 比大不一樣，Johnny原來每天抽三盒，He was a three-pack-a-day man. 英文里根據抽煙的多少，可以分為 social smoker 偶爾抽著玩的人﹔light smoker 煙癮不大的人﹔heavy smoker 煙癮很大的人，還有 chain smoker 一根接一根抽的人，Johnny顯然就是這種人，a hard-core smoker 鐵桿煙民。Johnny說，自己剛剛戒了11天，還不能 pat myself on the back 自滿。to pat oneself on the back 是自我表揚，自我鼓勵的意思。 Daisy說，
D: I quit cold turkey, and that was pretty darn hard.
J: Quitting smoking takes a lot of willpower, but these days a lot of help is available if you look for it.
K: My uncle tried hypnosis. A specialist tried to hypnotize him to give him the suggestion that he should stop smoking.
J: Did it work?
K: He quit for a few months, but then he fell back into his old habit.
D: A lot of my friends have tried nicotine patches. Nicotine is an addictive drug and when you quit using it, you get seriously grumpy. Sometimes a patch can help reduce nicotine cravings.
戒煙需要毅力，It takes a lot of willpower. Daisy說自己當年說不抽就不抽了，to quit something cold turkey. 意思是乾淨利落地戒掉某種習慣。Kathy說，她叔叔曾嚐試過hypnosis催眠，hypnosis is spelled h-y-p-n-o-s-i-s, hypnosis, 動詞是 hypnotize, h-y-p-n-o-t-i-z-e, 但是只堅持了幾個月，就又fell back into his old habit 重新撿起了舊習慣。Daisy說，他很多朋友都用 nicotine patches 尼古丁貼片，減少身體對尼古丁的 cravings, cravings 指強烈願望，在這是指對尼古丁的癮頭。戒煙還有其他甚麼好辦法呢？我們下次繼續聽。
