Beijing restaurants, bars and Internet cafes have been exempted from a proposed smoking ban at public venues in response to concerns expressed by business owners.
Lawmakers and health experts said the difficulty in introducing a carpet smoking ban underlines the grave challenges faced in a country with the highest number of smokers.
鉴于经营者表现出的忧虑，北京的餐馆、酒吧和网吧不会实施近期提出的公共场所禁烟令。
立法人士和健康专家表示，实施全面禁烟令苦难重重，对于这个拥有最多烟民的国家来说，是一个巨大的挑战。
该报道中，carpet smoking ban 就是“全面禁烟令”的意思。Carpet原本的意思是“地毯,毛毯；铺以地毯,铺盖”，在这里则是一个引申的用法，表示covering completely, as if with a carpet，也就是“地毯式的，全面的”意思，比如：carpet bombing（地毯式/全面轰炸）。exempt from 是“免除，豁免”的意思，be exempted from a smoking ban则是“免受禁烟令的限制”。作者: Sylvia_scj 时间: 2008-4-16 13:07
