Despite these alarming statistics, the scale of the threat that smoking causes to women’s health has received surprisingly little attention. Smoking is still seen by many as a mainly male problem, perhaps because men were the first to take up the habit and therefore the first to suffer the ill-effects. This is no longer the case. Women who smoke like men will die like men. WHO estimates that, in industrialized countries, smoking rates amongst men and women are very similar, at around 30 per cent; in a large number of developed countries, smoking is now more common among teenage girls than boys.

As women took up smoking later than men, the full impact of smoking on their health has yet to be seen. But it is clear from countries where women have smoked longest, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, that smoking causes the same diseases in women as in men and the gap between their death rates is narrowing. On current trends, some 20 to 25 per cent of women who smoke will die from their habit. One in three of these deaths will be among women under 65 year of age. The US Surgeon General has estimated that, amongst these women, smoking is responsible for around 40 per cent heart disease deaths, 55 per cent of lethal strokes and, among women of all ages, 80 per cent of lung cancer deaths and 30 per cent of all cancer deaths. Over the last 20 years, death rates in women from lung cancer have more than doubled in Japan, Norway, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom; have increased by more than 200 per cent in Australia, Denmark and New Zealand; and have increased by more than 300 per cent in Canada and the United States.

21. The effect of smoking on women has not been paid enough attention because______.

A. men suffer more from smoking

B. men would like women to smoke

C. men are considered the main sufferers of smoking

D. there are alarming statistics of death caused by smoking

22. "This is no longer the case. " The word "this" refers to______.

A. that men used to suffer the ill-effects

B. that there were alarming statistics

C. that the scale of threat become larger

D. that women suffered from smoking as greatly as men

23. From the fact that in some developed countries smoking is now more common among teenage girls than boys, we can predict that in the days to come, ______.

A. women will have the same diseases as men

B. more women may suffer from smoking than men

C. the smoking rates among men and women will drop

D. the teenage girls today may give up smoking when they are grown-ups

24. All of the following statements are the effects of smoking on women EXCEPT that

A. the death rates of the women and men who are smoking are in similar proportion

B. smoking causes the same diseases in women as in men

C. in the past 20 years, death rates in women from lung cancer have more than doubled

D. smoking is responsible for 30 percent of all cancer deaths among women

25. In the phrase "lethal stroke", the word "lethal" most probably means______.

A. causing death B. causing discomfort

C. causing poor health D. causing anxiety

21. C 22. A 23. B 24. C 25. A