man smoking.jpg

 

Tobacco

 

Tobacco is a product prepared from the leaves of the tobacco plant. Dried tobacco leaves are mainly smoked as cigarettes, but the product can be chewed, or absorbed through the nose. Scientists now know that tobacco can cause many diseases, including several types of cancers. If people didn't smoke, they wouldn't die so prematurely. Thus, tobacco is considered the world's single greatest cause of preventable death.

 

Tobacco came from the Americas: Central and South America, and had been used by the local people there for thousands of years. When the people from Europe first arrived in the Americas, they noticed the local people smoking tobacco. These Europeans tried it themselves, and eventually decided they liked it. Yet the tobacco smoke of that time was strong and bitter, and could only be smoked a little at a time. New varieties of tobacco, which were not so strong, were soon developed, and this led to the product becoming fashionable in Europe. Thus, tobacco production eventually became a major industry.

 

However, tobacco is a form of drug. It contains nicotine, which is addictive – that is, makes people want to keep smoking. Many plants contain nicotine, which helps stop the plant being attacked by insects, but tobacco contains much more of this substance than most other plants. This led to the formation of anti-smoking groups [See the picture above, which is obviously designed to warn people of the dangers of smoking]. The advertising of cigarettes was eventually banned, and smoking began to fall in the developed world. Yet, it has continued to grow in the developing world, which has the greatest population. This means that the production of tobacco in the world has generally been increasing, with China being the greatest producer by far.

 

Question Time

 

Where did tobacco originally come from? …………………………………………………

 

What was the first tobacco smoke like? …………………………………………...……...

 

What made it become fashionable in Europe? …………………….…………….……….

 

What drug does tobacco contain? …………………………………..………….………….

 

Where has smoking continued to grow? ………………………….……….………………

 

 

Word-Learning Time

 

Do you know the meaning of the underlined words?

 

Ambiguous

Preventable

Bitter 

Fashionable  

Addictive

To be banned

 

By the way, you can find out more about me at www.aisielts.com .

 

arrow
arrow
    全站熱搜

    安德魯Andrew 發表在 痞客邦 留言(0) 人氣()