EZIELTS
This website is not compatible with IE8 or its lower version. Please use Chrome or upgrade to IE9 to see it properly
Questions 8 – 10
After reading the following passage, complete each sentence with the correct ending A-J from the box below.
Write the correct letter AJ in boxes 810 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
8 Passive smoking
9 Compared with a nonsmoker, a smoker
10 The American Medical Association
A includes reviews of studies in its reports.
B argues for stronger action against smoking in public places.
C is one of the two most preventable causes of death.
D is more likely to be at risk f rom passive smoking diseases.
E is more harmful to nonsmokers than to smokers.
F is less likely to be at risk of contracting lung cancer.
G is more likely to be at risk of contracting various cancers.
H opposes smoking and publishes research on the subject.
I is just as harmful to smokers as it is to nonsmokers.
J reduces the quantity of blood f lowing around the body.
The Risks of Cigarette Smokers
Discoveredinthe early 1800s andnamed ‘nicotianine’, the oily essence nowcallednicotine is the main active ingredient of tobacco. Nicotine, however, is only asmallcomponent of cigarette smoke,which containsmore than 4,700chemicalcompounds, including 43cancercausing substances. In recent times, scientificresearch has been providing evidence that years ofcigarettesmoking vastly increasesthe riskof developing fatalmedicalconditions.
In addition to beingresponsible formore than 85percent oflung cancers, smoking is associated with cancers of, amongst others, the mouth, stomach andkidneys, andisthought tocause about 14percent ofleukaemiaandcervicalcancers. In 1990, smoking causedmore than 84,000deaths, mainly resulting from such problems as pneumonia, bronchitis andinfluenza. Smoking,it is believed, is responsible for30percent ofalldeaths from cancerandclearly represents the most important preventable cause of cancerincountries like the United States today.
Passive smoking,the breathing in of the sidestream smoke from theburning oftobacco betweenpuffs orof the smoke exhaledbyasmoker, also causes aserioushealth risk. A report published in 1992by theUS EnvironmentalProtection Agency (EPA)emphasizedthe health dangers, especially from sidestream smoke. This typeof smoke containsmore smallerparticles andistherefore more likely to bedeposited deepinthe lungs. On the basis ofthis report,the EPA has classifiedenvironmentaltobacco smoke in the highest riskcategory forcausing cancer.
Asan illustration of the health risks, in the caseof amarriedcouple where one partneris asmokerandone anonsmoker, thelatteris believed to have a30percent higher riskof death from heart disease because of passive smoking. The riskof lung canceralso increasesoverthe years ofexposure andthe figure jumps to 80percent ifthe spouse has been smoking fourpacks adayfor20years. It has been calculated that 17percent ofcasesof lung cancercan beattributedto high levelsof exposure to secondhandtobacco smoke during childhoodandadolescence.
A more recent study by researchers at theUniversityof Californiaat San Francisco (UCSF) has shown that secondhandcigarette smoke does more harmto nonsmokers than to smokers. Leaving aside the philosophicalquestion of whetheranyone shouldhave to breathe someoneelse’s cigarette smoke, the report suggeststhat the smoke experiencedby many people intheirdaily lives is enough to produce substantialadverse effects on aperson’s heart andlungs.
The report,publishedinthe Journalof the American MedicalAssociation (AMA), was basedon theresearchers’own earlierresearch but also includes areview ofstudies over the past few years. The American MedicalAssociation represents about halfof allUS doctors andisastrong opponent of smoking. The study suggeststhat people whosmoke cigarettes are continually damaging theircardiovascularsystem, which adapts in orderto compensate forthe effects of smoking. Itfurtherstates that people who do notsmoke do not have the benefit oftheirsystem adaptingto the smokeinhalation. Consequently,the effects of passive smoking are far greateronnonsmokers than on smokers.
This report emphasizesthat cancerisnot causedby asingle element in cigarettesmoke; harmfuleffects to health are caused by many components. Carbon monoxide, forexample, competes with oxygen in redbloodcells andinterferes with the blood’s abilityto deliver lifegiving oxygento theheart. Nicotine andothertoxinsincigarette smoke activate smallbloodcells called platelets, which increasesthe likelihoodof bloodclots, thereby affecting bloodcirculation throughout the body.
The researchers criticize the practice of some scientificconsultants who work with the tobacco industry forassuming that cigarettesmoke has the same impact on smokers as it does on nonsmokers. Theyarguethatthose scientistsare underestimating the damagedone by passive smoking and, in support oftheirrecent findings, cite some previousresearch which points to passive smoking as thecause forbetween 30,000and60,000deaths from heart attackseach yearinthe United States. This means that passive smoking is the thirdmost preventable cause of death afteractivesmoking andalcoholrelated diseases.
The study argues that the type of action neededagainst passive smoking shouldbe similarto that beingtakenagainst illegaldrugs andAIDS(SIDA). TheUCSFresearchers maintain that the simplest andmost costeffective action is to establishsmokefree work places, schools andpublicplaces.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answers
8 Passive smoking
E Paragraph 3
9 Compared with a nonsmoker, a smoker
G Paragraph 2
10 The American Medical Association
H Paragraph 6
