Women Smoking 女性吸烟

Vicki: Hi, and welcome to Ask About Britain from BBC Learning English.
I’m Vicki.
Sun Chen: 还有我，孙晨。在我们今天的节目当中来回答听友关于伦敦生活方面的问题。
Vicki: Our question this time was emailed to us by Jean in Beijing. She
asks, “I want to know why so many young women smoke – it’s
more than China”.
Sun Chen: 看来，Jean 想知道在英国，为什么有那么多年轻的女性都在抽烟呢？
Vicki: She thinks that more young women in Britain smoke than in China,
and wonders why.
Sun Chen: 那到底英国是不是有很多年轻的女性吸烟呢？
Vicki: Yes, although the number of people who smoke is dropping,
teenage girls are still taking up smoking more than any other type
of person.
Sun Chen: 从总体上说，吸烟人群的总人数在下降 – dropping, 但是很多英国十几岁的
女孩子还在学抽烟 – taking it up. 这又是为什么呢?
Vicki: BBC presenter Dermot Murnaghan gives us two possible reasons.
Insert
Whether it’s peer pressure or fashion, the attraction of cigarettes is as strong as (来源：www.EnglishCN.com)
ever for those teenage girls.
Sun Chen: 看来其中的一个原因，是因为这么做时髦– fashion, 我们一会儿就这个问题，
还会详细地介绍。
Vicki: And the other reason is peer pressure.
Sun Chen: Peer pressure – 就是周围和你年纪相仿的孩子们的影响。
Vicki: Let’s look at fashion first then – why is it fashionable to smoke?
Penny Tinkler, who wrote a book about smoking, says that even
back in the 1920s when women first started smoking, it was
thought to be glamorous.
Sun Chen: Glamorous – 有魅力的。
Insert
Well it was considered glamorous, because it was associated with women who
had money and who were fashionable and stylish.
Sun Chen: 她用了两个词，来说什么东西很时尚。
Vicki: Fashionable, and stylish. But there’s another fashion reason why
young women smoke.
Sun Chen: 我们也来听听一些年轻的女孩子们是怎么说的吧！看看你是不是能听懂他们说
的是什么。
Insert
- I don’t really want to give up because I don’t really want to gain all the weight.
- I used to eat a lot but I stopped so I could slim down and I thought smoking
would help me.
Vicki: So it’s to do with weight – smoking often makes people eat less, so
they slim down.
Sun Chen: 能减肥。
Vicki: And if they give up they are worried about gaining weight.
Sun Chen: 增加体重，就是变胖。
YOU’RE LISTENING TO BBC LEARNING ENGLISH
Vicki: In the programme today we’re talking about why young women in
Britain smoke. We’ve heard that it can be to do with fashion and
losing weight. But what about peer pressure? We asked some
women smokers why they started and nearly all of them said it was
because of peer pressure.
Insert
- I had an older brother who smoked, so it was probably that, when I was about
14 and I was copying him, and it seemed cool…
- I suppose I was just in a crowd of people who smoked.
- At school it was cool to smoke basically, when I was about 14 it was a naughty
thing to do at lunchtime.
- Friends are all trying it and it’s like one of those things that looks good, doesn’t
it. If they’re all doing it then you want to do it as well. And if you don’t do it then
you feel left out.
Sun Chen: 这么说起来，她们学抽烟的一个很简单的原因，就是因为她们的朋友，还有比
她们还大的兄弟姐妹都抽。她们也觉得，抽烟能使她们看上去更酷。
Vicki: It was ‘cool’ to smoke, and if you didn’t then you felt left out.
Sun Chen: Left out – 落伍。但是她们长大之后，是不是还觉得抽烟是一种很有吸引力，
很酷的事儿呢？
Insert
- Recently more and more – you’re like an outcast. People have a more healthy
attitude and they think smoking is bad. More people are getting annoyed with
your smoking.
- I think anybody smoking is just a bit foolish. I don’t understand why anyone
would want to do that.
- In general it’s become less and less acceptable. You feel like a social outcast.
Vicki: So generally they all say that people don’t think smoking is
attractive or cool now. More people think smoking is bad and get