Scotsaremorelikelytodrinkthemselvestodeaththanpeoplefro...

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Scots are more likely to drink themselves to death than people from any other nation in Western Europe except Austria and Portugal. Every day, six Scots die from alcohol-related conditions. Our hospitals and health services struggle with the wider damage. An estimated 51,600 Scots suffer from drink-related illness. Incidence of liver disease has shot up 40 percent in the past seven years. Most knife attacks and most adult murders occur under the influence of alcohol. And drink abuse (嗜酒) has ruined thousands of families, a personal, psychological and social

cost on top of the £1 billion already estimated through work absence.

If all this were not bad enough, problems with alcohol abuse are now spreading to an ever-younger age group.

The proportion of pupils aged 12-15 who had had an alcoholic drink in the previous week rose in the last decade from 14 percent to 21 percent. Today, more than 40 percent of all 15-year-olds admit to having had a drink in the past week. Much teenage crime and destruction is drink related.

To his credit, the Executive has focused his attention on alcohol abuse problem. Behind the scenes, the

Executive is discussing how far it should go in trying to persuade Scots to drink in a more sensible fashion. The First Minister is known to be against an alcohol ban on the lines of prohibition on public smoking. He is correct that such a move would not be accepted by the people and, anyway, general prohibition tends to drive substance abuse underground rather than eliminate it.

Nevertheless, a debate is emerging on what controls to put on the easy availability of alcohol, especially to the

young. As we report today, Donald Gorrie, the senior Liberal Democrat MSP, is launching a campaign in the Scottish Parliament(议会)to prohibit supermarkets from offering cut-price promotions on alcoholic drinks, in line

with a similar ban on such promotions to off-licences and public houses introduced earlier this year.

It remains to be seen if it is technically feasible to define sales promotions of alcohol in a supermarket in such

a way as to control them. There is also a reasonable argument that it is better to have people buy drinks at a

supermarket, where the likelihood is that they will consume the alcohol at home rather than drink in public. On the other hand, much of the alcohol consumed by underground drinkers comes from the family supply. Perhaps the real solution is to question the cheapness of alcohol across the board.

Nevertheless, Mr. Gorrie has opened an important public discussion. He has a talent for making parliament

confront awkward issues, and alcohol is one such issue.

32. It can be inferred from the passage that _____________.

A.  banning alcohol may make alcohol abuse exist secretly

B.  Donald Gorrie held a debate on limiting alcohol

C.  40 percent of all 15-year-olds are involved in criminal activity after drinking

D.  the influence of alcohol cost £1 billion through drink-related disease

33. The underlined sentence in Paragraph 4 means “_____________.”

A.  young people debate over whether they should control the availability of alcohol

B.  unless a debate of controlling alcohol is held, young people will drink too much alcohol

C.  a debate on how to keep young people from easy access to alcohol appears

D.  there is a discussion on how young people could give up alcohol abuse

34. What is probably the useful solution to alcohol abuse according to the passage?

A.  To change the cheapness of alcohol.

B.  To prohibit people from going to pubs.

C.  To persuade them to drink in a more sensible fashion.

D.  To strike secret pubs.

35. This passage is more likely to be seen in _____________.

A. a medical magazine B. the society page of a newspaper

C. an introduction to Scotland D. an official document from British government

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ACAB

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