The word goal in “The goal is behavior modification” can be ...

O texto a seguir refere-se às questões 29, 30, 31 e 32.

Learning to quit

Jodi Hall started smoking at age 9.

By the time she was 16, she was up to a pack a day – and she wanted to quit. A couple of reasons: one, her health; two, a guy named Mony. “He said that when he kissed me, it was like kissing an ashtray”, Jodi says.

Earlier this year, Jodi, along with 25 of her classmates at Johnson High School, in Savannah, GA, enrolled in the school’s first stop-smoking class. During the eight-week Tobacco Free Teen class, they learned what smoking can do to their body, their wallet and their grades (some kids end up cutting class to satisfy their nicotine cravings). But it wasn’t just about scare tactics. The goal is behavior modification, not punishment, so students are taught techniques for handling stress and resisting the urge to light up even when friends or parents do.

According to the American Lung Association (ALA), which sponsors the class, about half the adults who smoke were regular smokers by age 18. “Theses numbers are only going to get worse,” says Kristine Lewis of the ALA. “The tobacco industry is turning to teens.”

How did the students do? Jodi has been cigaretteless for three months. But she’s the only one. Her classmate Adam Cushman is slowly putting his way back to three packs a day. The 16-year-old says he wants to stop, “but the way things are going, I doubt I’ll be able to.”

Seventeen, June 1996.