SECTIONBADecisionMadeTooLate摘要.doc

A Decision Made Too Late 课文讲解 ??? Most people know that cigarette smoking can hurt their health. Scientific research shows that it causes many kinds of diseases. In fact, many people who smoke get lung cancer. Edward Gilson has lung cancer, however, and he has never smoked cigarettes. He lives with his wife, Evelyn, who has smoked about a pack of cigarettes a day throughout their marriage. The Gilsons have been married for 35 years. ? ? No one knows for sure why Mr. Gilson has lung cancer. Even so, doctors believe that cigarette smoke has some relation to lung cancer in people who do not smoke, because they often breathe smoke coming from other peoples cigarettes. This smoke is called secondhand smoke. Edward Gilson has been breathing this type of smoke for 35 years. Now he is dying of lung cancer. However, he is not alone. The United States Environmental Protection Agency reports that about 53,000 people die in the United States each year as a result of breathing in secondhand smoke. ? ? The smoke that comes from the burning tobacco leaf in cigarettes contains many different dangerous materials, which are delivered into the body by the smoke.? In the past, scientists thought that these materials could only hurt a smokers health. Lately, though, scientists discovered that even people who didnt smoke had a lot of these dangerous materials in their bodies.? Even if we dont realize it, nearly all of us may at some time draw in tobacco smoke with each breath. For example, we cannot avoid secondhand smoke in restaurants, hotels and other public places. Even though many public places have no smoking areas, smoke flows in from the areas where smoking is permitted. ? ? ? In the United States, nine million children under the age of five live in homes with at least one smoker. Research shows that children who breathe secondhand smoke are sick more often than children who live in homes where no one smokes. The damaging effects of secondhand smoke on children also continue a