Reflections from VCU English Language Learners

Weekly News HW (July 8)

Thank for your detailed answer.  Are most laws in Brazil made at the national level or are most laws made at the state level?  In the US, many things are decided by the states, hence why you still seem smoking in restaurants and bars in Virginia but not in California.

bia2009:

In Br the legal age to purchase cigarette is 18, but they break the law all the time. Unfortunately, the young people start to smoke earlier, and many stores don’t ask for ID. It has not control in BR. About places where is allowed to smoke, it is still like here. In restaurants, bars, clubs they can smoke in some special places designed for them, but always close to reserved area for non-smokers. It’s not allowed smoking in public transportation, cinemas, museums, theatres, shops. Since last April, they are trying to approve a new law that become forbidden smoking in any collective area (public or not). If the law is sanctioned, it will not be allowed to smoke in any restaurant, bars, common public areas, common areas in condominium and hotels (there will be not special areas for smokers), and so on. Today there still are special places, reserved places for smokers. I really hope for this approbation which becomes the smoker life harder, and the non-smoker life freer. About cigarettes advertising I don’t know how it works in US, but in BR it is absolutely forbidden any kind of advertising by any kind of media. Tobacco companies must include on the cigarettes box the phrase “Health Ministry warns that smoking is harmful for the health”, and they must show shocking pictures with consequences from smoking.

ashort:

What are smoking laws like in Brazil?

bia2009:

States Look To Cigarettes To Bridge Budget Gaps

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106338167

Questions

Do you think that to raise [RAISING] tobacco taxes is an effective way to decrease the consume [CONSUMPTION]?

Could it make smokers give up smoking?

Vocabulary

- Levy: (n) act or process of collecting or conscripting (money, property, etc.) by a government or other authority; something which is collected through a levy (i.e. money, property, troops, etc.).

- Revenue: (n) income, return, gains; government income earned through taxation; government agency that collects tax monies; source of income.

- Shrinking: (v) contract, become smaller, shrivel; flinch, recoil; decrease, diminish; make smaller, cause to shrink

Definitions from http://www.babylon.com