英语四级阅读200篇: Unit 45 passage 1_大学英语阅读

英语四级阅读200篇: Unit 45 passage 1

　　You see, It isnt the quitting thats hard. As Mark Twain once said, Its easy to stop smoking; Ive done it thousands of times. The hard part is: How do you go on living after you stop? And how, for heavens sake, do you stay stopped?

　　And so, Im here to tell you those of you who are still killing yourselves with nicotine that it can be done. It can be done as I and others are doing it right now. We dont do it with willpower. Quite the opposite. We surrendered.

　　We admitted that we were powerless over those dumb sticks of white paper filled with chopped-up weed. Some of us believe in God. Others rely on the strength of the group. But all of us believe that it is the process of helping smokers still in the severe pains of the addiction that has been most beneficial. This is a new movement in the war against cigarettes, and it works.

　　New Joys. Three times a month, on Monday evenings, we have a Quakerlike meeting during which each of us speaks for a few moments. We speak of the new joys of tasting and smelling food, of driving in a clean automobile, of how good kisses taste without smoke on the breath. We speak of how our complexions have improved, of how young we feel, of the new strength we are bringing to our favorite sports. We even speak, some of us, blushing, of how our sex lives have livened up.

　　On the fourth Monday, one of us talks for a full 30 minutes. We tell our smoking autobiographies. This was easy for me because I remember it all so well, all the way back to my first cigarette. I was a shy, stuttering kid of 16, on a double date with my best friend. Eddie already smoked. A year older than I, he was a man of the world. With his swagger and wide-brimmed fedora, he looked like a Hollywood reporter. I, too, wanted to dangle a cigarette from the corner of my lips, tilt my hat back, and sat at the typewriter as I knocked out a story.