Daisy在公司走廊上跟同事Johnny打招呼。

Daisy: Hey Johnny, good to see you! How have you been? I haven’t seen you in almost a month.

Johnny: Eleven days, six hours, 21 minutes, and let me see….twenty something seconds.

D: Umm….eleven what?

J: Eleven days since my last cigarette!

D: Hey…good for you! High five!

Daisy将近一个月没见到Johnny,Johnny在这期间把烟戒了,戒烟已经持续了 eleven days, six hours, 21 minutes, and twenty something seconds. 11天6小时21分钟20几秒。Daisy对Johnny表示赞扬,说 good for you! 有你的。这时候女同事Kathy凑了过来。

Kathy: Good afternoon. What are we celebrating?

D: Johnny here has been trying to quit cigarettes for years!

J: And today I’m almost 2 weeks into my program!

K: Wow, congratulations! I quit 10 years ago, but then again, I was never really a serious smoker.

D: Johnny here was a three-pack-a-day man!

K: You smoked three packs a day??! That’s some hard-core smoking! So…It must have been very difficult to quit.

J: Well, I’ve only been smoke-free for 11 days so I can’t pat myself on the back too much. But yes, it has been really tough…probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.

Kathy说自己是十年前戒的烟,但戒烟前其实抽得也不是很多,I was never a serious smoker. 这一点跟 Johnny 比大不一样,Johnny原来每天抽三盒,He was a three-pack-a-day man. 英文里根据抽烟的多少,可以分为 social smoker 偶尔抽着玩的人;light smoker 烟瘾不大的人;heavy smoker 烟瘾很大的人,还有 chain smoker 一根接一根抽的人,Johnny显然就是这种人,a hard-core smoker 铁杆烟民。Johnny说,自己刚刚戒了11天,还不能 pat myself on the back 自满。to pat oneself on the back 是自我表扬,自我鼓励的意思。 Daisy说,

D: I quit cold turkey, and that was pretty darn hard.

J: Quitting smoking takes a lot of willpower, but these days a lot of help is available if you look for it.

K: My uncle tried hypnosis. A specialist tried to hypnotize him to give him the suggestion that he should stop smoking.

J: Did it work?

K: He quit for a few months, but then he fell back into his old habit.

D: A lot of my friends have tried nicotine patches. Nicotine is an addictive drug and when you quit using it, you get seriously grumpy. Sometimes a patch can help reduce nicotine cravings.

戒烟需要毅力,It takes a lot of willpower. Daisy说自己当年说不抽就不抽了,to quit something cold turkey. 意思是干净利落地戒掉某种习惯。Kathy说,她叔叔曾尝试过hypnosis催眠,hypnosis is spelled h-y-p-n-o-s-i-s, hypnosis, 动词是 hypnotize, h-y-p-n-o-t-i-z-e, 但是只坚持了几个月,就又fell back into his old habit 重新捡起了旧习惯。Daisy说,他很多朋友都用 nicotine patches 尼古丁贴片,减少身体对尼古丁的 cravings, cravings 指强烈愿望,在这是指对尼古丁的瘾头。戒烟还有其他什么好办法呢?我们下次继续听。