Up in Smoke I began to smoke when I was in high school. In fact, I remember the evening I

was at a girlfriend’s house, and we were watching a movie—a terribly romantic movie. He (the hero of the movie) was in love, she (his lady) was beautiful, and they were both smoking. My friend had only two cigarettes from a pack in her mother’s purse, and she gave one to me. It was my first time.

My parents didn’t care much. They both smoked, and my older brother did too. My mother told me that smokers don’t grow tall, but I was already5’6”(taller than most of the boys in my class), so I was happy to hear that “fact”. In school, the teachers talked against smoking, but the cigarette advertisements were so exciting. The men in the ads were so good-looking and so successful, and the women were-well, they were beautiful and sophisticated(老于世故的).

I read a book called how to stop smoking. The writer said that smoking wastes time, and that cigarettes cost a lot of money. “So what？” I thought, the book didn’t say that smoking can take away years of your life. But ten years later, everyone began to hear about the negative effects of cigarette smoke: lung disease, cancer, and heart problems. After that, there was a health warning on every pack of cigarettes. I didn’t pay much attention to the reports and warnings. I felt healthy, and I thought I was taking good care of myself.

Then two events changed my mind. First, I started to cough. I thought it was just a cold, but it didn’t get better. Second, my brother got lung cancer. He got sicker and sicker. My brother and I used to smoke cigarettes together over twenty years age, and we smoked our last cigarettes together the day before he died. I sat with him in his hospital room, and I decided to quit. “NO more cigarettes, ever,” I said to myself.

However, it was very hard to stop, Nicotine(尼古丁)is a drug; as a result, cigarettes cause a powerful addiction. I tried several times to quit on my own—without success. I made excuses. I told myself: Smoking helps me keep my figure—i.e. I don’t gain weight when I smoke. Smoking not only relaxes me but it also helps me think clearly. I’m a free, liberated woman. I can smoke when I want to.

Finally, I ran out of excuses—I might say my excuses went up in smoke. I joined the “Stop Smoking” program at the local hospital, which also ended up in failure.

第11题：How the writer started smoking shows the powerful influence of

A．educational institutions

B．one’s social status

C．the mass media

D．public opinions