Eat, drink and be merry. That’s what Spring Festival is all about. But there are millions of people, too, who love to let happiness go up in smoke.
Offering cigarettes to guests is a traditional Chinese way of showing respect to them. A cup of tea and cigarettes are perhaps the most common way of welcoming a guest in China, especially during festive occasions.
No wonder, 40 percent of the people surveyed(调查) recently said they would smoke at least twice the usual number of cigarettes during the Spring Festival because of all those gatherings and parties. Only 20 percent of the respondents said they would refuse a cigarette when offered one. Why can’t the others do the same? Because they could be seen as being rude, said more than half in the respondents. 15 percent feared they could be taken as “someone who cannot get along well with others”.
The Think-tank Research Centre for Health Development and sohu. com survey shows 61 percent Chinese think offering a cigarette is useful for socialising, and 52 percent have offered cigarettes to others. The study surveyed 3,800 people, and 64 percent of them were men.
One-third of those surveyed were smokers, out of which 57 percent said they couldn’t give up smoking because of the offering-and-accepting culture. “People have accepted offering cigarettes as an effective way of making friends,” research centre director Wu Yiqun says.
China has more than 350 million smokers, catering to the tobacco market that is worth 500 billion yuan. “The survey shows we still have a lot of work to do,” Wu says. “It is time to let people know that offering a cigarette is a bad habit and it should be given up immediately.”
59. The passage is written with the purpose of ________.
A. telling us a custom about the Chinese Spring Festival
B. introducing a way to make friends with Chinese
C. stopping smoking during the Chinese Spring Festival
D. telling us that offering cigarettes is a bad habit
60. The third paragraph mainly tells us ________.
A. the fact that smokers are greatly increasing during the festival
B. the reason why refusing cigarettes is acceptable
C. the fact that many people have to smoke more cigarettes during the festival
D. it is rude to attend parties without smoking cigarettes
61. Which of the following may NOT be the reason that makes many people fail to refuse the offered cigarettes?
A. It’s impolite to refuse. B. Smoking is harmful for non-smokers.
C. They want to be friendly D. It’s a kind of social habit.
62. The writer mentions the 500 billion yuan tobacco market because ________.
A. the tobacco market is not developing smoothly
B. the writer thinks that smoking wastes a lot of money
C. smoking is helpful to the tobacco market
D. the tobacco market attracts too many smokers
