2018专八阅读理解练习题：严格禁止吸烟

2018专八阅读理解练习题：严格禁止吸烟

　　Strictly Ban smoking

　　If you smoke and you still don't believe that there's adefinite link between smoking and bronchialtroubles, heart disease and lung cancer, then you arecertainly deceiving yourself. No one will accuse youof hypocrisy. Let us just say that you are suffering from a bad case of wishful thinking.

　　This needn't make you too uncomfortable because you are in good company. Whenever thesubject of smoking and health is raised, the governments of most countries hear no evil, see noevil and smell no evil. Admittedly, a few governments have taken timid measures.

　　In Britain for instance, cigarette advertising has been banned on television. The conscience ofthe nation is appeased, while the population continues to puff its way to smoky, cancerousdeath.

　　You don' t have to look very far to find out why the official reactions to medical findings havebeen so lukewarm. The answer is simply money. Tobacco is a wonderful commodity to tax. It's almost like a tax on our daily bread.

　　In tax revenue alone, the government of Britain collects enough from smokers to pay for itsentire educational facilities. So while the authorities point out ever so discreetly that smokingmay, conceivable, be harmful, it down't do to shout too loudly about it.

　　This is surely the most short-sighted policy you could imagine. While money is eagerly collectedin vast sums with one hand, it is paid out in increasingly vaster sums with the other. Enormousamounts are spent on cancer research and on efforts to cure people suffering from the disease.

　　Countless valuable lives are lost. In the long run, there is no doubt that everybody would bemuch better-off if smoking were banned altogether.

　　Of course, we are not ready for such a drastic action. But if the governments of the world werehonestly concerned about the welfare of their peoples, you'd think they'd conduct aggressiveanti-smoking campaigns. Far from it! The tobacco industry is allowed to spend staggering sumson advertising.

　　Its advertising is as insidious as it is dishonest. We are never shown pictures of real smokerscoughing up their lungs early in the morning. That would never do. The advertisement alwaysdepict virile, clean-shaven young men. They suggest it is manly to smoke, even positivelyhealthy!

　　Smoking is associated with the great open-air life, with beautiful girls, true love andtogetherness. What utter nonsense!

　　For a start, governments could begin by banning all cigarette and tobacco advertising andshould then conduct anti-smoking advertising campaigns of their own. Smoking should bebanned in all public places like theatres, cinemas and restaurants. Great efforts should be madeto inform young people especially of the dire consequences of taking up the habit. A horrificwarning say, a picture of a death's head should be included in every packet of cigarettes that issold. As individuals, we are、 certainly weak, but if governments acted honestly andcourageously, they could protect us from ourselves.

　　【阅读练习题】

　　1.Why do a few governments take timid measures toward smoking?

　　[A] because they are afraid of people.

　　[B]Because diseases cost a lot.

　　[C] Because they are afraid of the cutting down of their revenue.

　　[D] Because they are afraid of manufacturers.

　　2.The tone of this passage is

　　[A] critical.

　　[B]ironical.

　　[C]distaste.

　　[D]amusm

　　3.What does the sentence "because you are in good company" mean?

　　[A] you are backed by the government.

　　[B]You are not alone.

　　[C] You have good colleagues.

　　[D] Governments are blind to evils of smoking too.

　　4.What is the best title of this passage?

　　[A] World Governments should conduct serious campaigns against smoking.

　　[B]World governments take timid measures against smoking.

　　[C] smoking is the most important source of income to many countries.

　　[D] tobacco industry spends a large sum of money on medical research.

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