Many will doubt tobacco industry claims that it is sharpening its science to evaluate "healthier cigarettes". But that’s what wi

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问题     Many will doubt tobacco industry claims that it is sharpening its science to evaluate "healthier cigarettes". But that’s what will happen if the US Food and Drug Administration(FDA)gets the job of regulating the industry, as a Senate vote on the issue was expected to decide this week. Then the health agency will be placed in the bizarre situation of deciding whether to approve new versions of products that have killed millions.
    Radicals will argue that the only way of preventing tobacco-related death and disease is to ban cigarettes, not encourage more tobacco products onto the market—even if they might be safer. However, a ban is unlikely, and so helping people to quit, dissuading teens from smoking in the first place and helping people avoid second-hand smoke should remain at the heart of health policies. Such measures have already cut the number of US smokers from around 50 per cent of the population in the 1960s to around 20 per cent today—but this is still well short of the US government’s target of 12 per cent by 2010.
    Abstinence cannot be the only policy, however. Pragmatists will see the sense of safer cigarettes. There is a hard core of people who cannot or will not give up, and safer cigarettes could also help in poorer parts of the world, where more and more people are taking up smoking: the World Health Organization predicts that by 2030 more than 80 per cent of tobacco-related deaths will be in low to middle-income countries.
    We need to find new ways of cutting the risks of tobacco. Nicotine replacements are one solution; reduced-harm products like modified cigarettes might be another. Without robust science to back up the claims of safety, however, they could make things worse, as has happened before. The marketing of "light", "ultra-light" and "low-tar" cigarettes led many smokers to believe that these were healthier alternatives to stronger brands, yet we now know that they cause just as much cancer. The tobacco industry has a poor history of transparency when it comes to research.
    Tobacco companies are now developing biomarkers to assess risk more accurately. They should be applauded, but only if they are prepared to subject their research to tough examination. FDA regulation may force them to do this. It should also make the labeling of cigarettes even clearer, so that consumers understand the relative risks. Only good science can cut through the smokescreen that for decades has obscured the hazards of cigarettes.
When it comes to smoking, pragmatists believe

选项 A、people should be encouraged to smoke considering economic interests.
B、it is sensible to introduce safer cigarettes since many people won’t quit.
C、the US government should spare no effort to ban smoking in public.
D、the tobacco industry should export cigarettes to undeveloped countries.

答案B

解析 推理判断题。根据pragmatists定位到第三段,实用主义者的观点是安全型香烟的存在有意义,因为总有顽固分子戒不掉也不肯戒烟,所以B项正确。
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