For many years, smokers have been admonished to take the initiative and quit: chew nicotine gum, use a nicotine patch, take a prescription medication that can help, call a help line, just say no. But a new study finds that stopping is seldom an individual decision. Smokers tend to quit in groups, the study finds, which means smoking cessation programs should work best if they focus on groups rather than individuals. It also means that people may help many more than just themselves by quitting: quitting can have a ripple effect prompting an entire social network to break the habit. The study, by Dr. Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School and James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego, followed thousands of smokers and nonsmokers for 32 years, from 1971 until 2003, studying them as part of a large network of relatives, co-workers, neighbors, friends and friends of friends. It was a time when the percentage of adult smokers in the United States fell to 21 percent from 45 percent. As the investigators watched the smokers and their social networks, they saw what they said was a striking effect—smokers had formed little social clusters and, as the years went by, entire clusters of smokers were stopping en masse. So were clusters of clusters that were only loosely connected. Dr. Christakis described watching the vanishing clusters as like lying on your back in a field, looking up at stars that were burning out. "It's not like one little star turning off at a time," he said. "Whole constellations are blinking off at once." As cluster after cluster of smokers disappeared, those that remained were pushed to the margins of society, isolated, with fewer friends, fewer social connections. "Smokers used to be the center of the party," Dr. Fowler said, "but now they've become wallflowers." "We've known smoking was bad for your physical health," he said. "But this shows it also is bad for your social health. Smokers are likely to drive friends away." "There is an essential public health message," said Richard Suzman, director of the office of behavioral and social research at the National Institute on Aging, which financed the study. "Obviously, people have to take responsibility for their behavior," Mr. Suzman said. But a social environment, he added, "can just overpower free will." With smoking, that can be a good thing, researchers noted. But there also is a sad side. As Dr. Steven Schroeder of the University of California, San Francisco, pointed out in an editorial accompanying the paper, "a risk of the marginalization of smoking is that it further isolates the group of people with the highest rate of smoking—persons with mental illness, problems with substance abuse, or both."
单选题
Which of the following statements is true according to the opening paragraph?
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】解析：本题是一道细节分析题，考查考生对文章指定段落的主旨及相关细节的理解。在首段中，作者指出“多年来劝解吸烟者通过多种手段主动戒烟，未能成功”(smokers have been admonished to take the initiative and quit：use…just say no)。而新研究发现“戒烟并非个人决心能实现的事情”，“吸烟者往往在群体中戒烟”。综合考虑这些信息，可知“群体戒烟”比“个人戒烟”更有效。C选项中的abstain from smoking是“戒烟”的另外一种表达；preferable表示“更可取”，有比较的意味，暗指“群体戒烟”与“个人戒烟”的比较。所以，本题正确答案为C。
单选题
The word "en masse" (paragraph 3) most probably means
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】解析：本题是一道词汇题，考查根据语境判断生词的含义。en masse是超纲词汇，对它的理解应依赖上下文的线索。从宏观线索来看，第一段已经申明研究发现“吸烟者往往在群体中戒烟”(Smokers tend to quit in groups)，这也是贯穿全文的议题；第二段阐述了该研究的背景；第三段以研究者的口吻阐述他们的“惊人发现”：整群的吸烟者在……地戒烟；这一发现与第一段的“研究发现”是同一内容，因此en masse这个状语成分应该能体现出“群体戒烟”的含义。从微观线索来看，本段中的比喻whole constellations are blinking off at once(整个星群突然熄灭)也印证了“整个群落全体戒烟”的情形。综合考虑这些宏观和微观的线索，可以判断出选项B(all together，一起；全体)是正确选项。
单选题
By saying "but now they've become wallflowers" (Line 3, Paragraph 4), Dr. Fowler aims at showing that
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】解析：本题是一道细节分析题，考查考生根据上下文理解句子的能力。解答此类问题不可只看字面含义，需要结合句子所在段落的语境和主旨来考察各个选项。第四段主旨是“随着吸烟群体的消失，那些继续吸烟的人被边缘化”，即他们的社会交往受到影响。从微观线索来看，吸烟者过去是“群体中的核心人物”，而他们现在却成了wallflowers(局外人)。即使考生不认识wallflowers这个词汇，但是也应该推断出它与center of the party意义相反，凸显了他们现在不被团体接纳。综合以上信息，可以得知B选项正确。