A、He was smoking a pipe. B、He was learning to smoke. C、He was studying a tobacco plant. D、He was throwing tobacco leaves on a fi

Long ago, no one in Europe smoked. The tobacco plant was unknown there. It grew in America and Christopher Columbus found it there. Later he returned to Europe and told people about tobacco. He said that the American Indians often smoked it. They threw some tobacco leaves on a fire, then put long tubes in their mouths. The other ends of the tubes were over the fire, so they were able to draw the smoke into their mouth.
    About the year 1560 a Frenchman, Jean Nicot, was living in Lisbon, Portugal. He was very interested in all American plants. Some of them were very different from the plants of Europe. He used the leaves of the tobacco plant to cure pain. When a man had a bad pain in a leg or an arm, Nicot put tobacco leaves on the painful place and tried to cure the pain in that way. We say now that tobacco contains nicotine. The word nicotine comes from this man’s name.
    Sir Walter Raleigh was a famous man in the days of Queen Elizabeth the First. He traveled widely and learnt to smoke. Then he returned to England, but he didn’t stop smoking. He used to smoke two pipes every day secretly in his room. When anyone came in, he quickly hid his pipe. A man came in and found clouds of smoke in the room. More smoke was coming from Raleigh’s mouth, so the man got some water and threw it over Raleigh. He believed that Raleigh was burning. He ran out of the house and told everybody about it. After this, smoking was not a secret.