"School programs that tell young people not to smoke are not working. The smoking rates for these groups are on the rise everywhere," said Judith Mackey, a veteran activist and Director of the Asian Consultancy on Tobacco Control. "The tobacco industry spends millions on cultivating certain images through advertising and marketing. We don't have that kind of money so we have to be creative in finding a way to reach them. The problem is there is a critical gap in knowledge as to why people take up smoking and what can be done to reach them at that critical age when they do."

*veteran：这个词原指“老兵，（美）退伍军人”，现引申为“经验丰富的，老练的”。比如：At the age of 12 the boy was already a veteran traveler, having flown all over the world with his father.（这男孩才12岁就已经跟父亲乘飞机游遍了全世界，是个旅游老手。）
*cultivating：原形“cultivate”，是“耕作，栽培”的意思。这里指“培养，建立”。烟草业花费大量金钱，通过广告和行销树立自己的形象。

That women take up smoking for different reasons than men do, and that tobacco affects women's bodies in different ways are areas that are still new for researchers. One of the biggest reasons why women smoke is to maintain or lose weight. Beliefs about being able to quit easily, lack of knowledge about health consequences, peer influence, access or affordability are other reasons influencing women to take up smoking, say researchers.

*peer：Peer常见的意思是“仔细看，凝视”，而这里作名词，指“同辈，同龄人”。除了想保持身材或减肥，女子吸烟有一部分原因是受同龄人的影响。

Marketing and advertising that focuses on women will be a major focus of participants at the Kobe conference. Brands for women such as Virginia Slims and other "slim" brands are prime examples of target marketing.

*participant：参与者，参加者。针对女性的烟草行销和广告将会成为Kobe会议与会者们讨论的主题。

"Not uncommonly, women's brands in Asia feature Western models," say Nancy J. Koufman and Mimi Nichter in the paper they are presenting on the media and marketing on women's tobacco use. Caucasian models lend a sense of foreignness to products, serving as symbols of prestige, quality and modernity, say the researchers.

*feature：以……为特色。比如：This store features round-the-clock service.（这家店以24小时服务为特色。）
*Caucasian：高加索人的，白种人的。
*prestige：声望，威望。研究人员说，西方模式因代表了威望、品质和现代性，为亚洲女士烟品牌增添了一种“洋派”的感觉。

"We need to teach women media literacy skills that will help them evaluate how the industry is targeting them," said Nancy J. Koufman, Vice President of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "We need counter campaigns to reach people at the stage when they start smoking. Perhaps if we can delay initiation we can prevent them from taking up smoking altogether. The focus so far has been on treating the problem medically, we need to focus more on prevention."

*counter：相反的，对立的。“counter-”也是一个前缀，表示“反、逆”。比如“counteract”（对……起反作用、对抗）；“counterclockwise”（逆时针方向的/地）。