单选题
For years, smokers have been exhorted to take the initiative and quit: use a nicotine patch, chew nicotine gum, 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 Sehroeder 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】[考点] 事实细节 [解析] 此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”，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。因此，C选项为正确答案。 [干扰项分析] A选项中的have been prevented(阻碍)是对文中have been exhorted(劝告)的错误解释，因此A选项错误。B选项是对原文信息“戒烟并非个人决心能实现的事情”的编造，偷换了主语，也偷换了decision的含义，因此B选项错误。D选项中的nonsmoker(非吸烟者)在本段未提及，该选项是无关信息的简单拼凑，所以应该排除D选项。
单选题The word "en masse" (Line 4, Paragraph 3) most probably means______.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[考点] 词汇短语 [解析]此题考查根据语境判断生词的含义。en masse是超纲词汇，对它的理解依赖上下文的线索。从宏观线索来看，第一段已经说明研究发现“吸烟者往往在群体中戒烟”，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，因此可以判断B选项正确。 [干扰项分析] 基于上述分析，A、C、D三个选项都无法体现与上下文内容的一致性，也无法与主题呼应。
单选题By saying "but now they' ve become wallflowers" (Line 3, Paragraph 4), Dr. Fowler intends to show that______.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[考点] 句意理解 [解析]此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。本段主旨是“随着吸烟群体的消失(cluster of smoker’s disappeared)，那些继续吸烟的人(those that remained)被边缘化(were pushed to the margins of society)”，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(center of the party)”，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，突现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。 [干扰项分析] A选项中的those who are isolated by clusters是对原文的误解，原文中谈及“吸烟群体消失，继续吸烟者被边缘化”，而不是“群体将吸烟者边缘化”；此外，“被群体隔离后会戒烟”与主旨“在群体中会戒烟”也相违背。而C选项是原文中无关片段的简单拼凑。D选项也是对原文内容的曲解。因此A、C、D三个选项错误。
单选题What can we conclude from the last paragraph?
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】[考点] 推理判断 [解析] 此题考查考生对文章中指定段落的主旨及相关细节的综合理解。本段涉及两种观点的对比：一方面，查德·苏门认为社会环境完全可以胜过自由意志(social environment,...can overpower free will)，并表示“对于吸烟，这是个好事情”(With smoking，that can be a good thing)。可以看出，他认可了社会环境对吸烟的控制。另一方面，史蒂文·斯克洛德指出排斥吸烟会使吸烟率最高的人群被进一步孤立了(a risk of the marginalization of smoking is that it further isolates the group)——这是负面效应(there also is a sad side)。综合这些信息，我们可以得知该社会对吸烟的影响既有积极作用，又有消极作用，因此D选项正确。 [干扰项分析] A选项错误，该项只涉及了查德·苏门观点的一部分，属于“片面观点的片断”。B选项属于无中生有的信息，其中的“自我中心”(self-centered)在原文中无处可查。C选项中的“执迷不悟”(wrong-headed)在文中也没有依据。
单选题Which of the following would be the best title for the text?