[originaltext]Many people who drink alcohol also like to smoke cigarettes. Drin

Many people who drink alcohol also like to smoke cigarettes. Drinking and smoking seem to be closely linked. Some people might even say they go together hand-in-hand. But this may be more than just a mixing of two fairly common activities.
Many people who drink a lot of alcohol often smoke. Scientists explain the relationship between alcohol and cigarettes. It’s complicated. [23] New research has looked more closely at the relationship between cigarettes and alcohol. And the relationship is one of equal dependence. Smoking and drinking seem to feed on each other. These are the exact words of Mahesh Thakkar. He is head of research in the Department of Neurology at the University of Missouri’s School of Medicine. [24] Thakkar explains that when a person drinks alcohol they get sleepy. He says a drug in cigarettes fights that sleepy feeling. That drug, nicotine, can be addictive; smokers need more cigarettes because of their body’s growing dependence on the drug. So, if a person smokes, then he or she is much more likely to drink alcohol, and vice versa. Thakkar says, “They feed off one another.”
Thakkar says his team found that nicotine weakens the sleep-causing effects of alcohol. [25] It does this by activating an area of the brain called the basal forebrain. According to the Psychology Definition website, that area is responsible for memory, learning and attention. For this new experiment, Thakkar and his team used equipment that measures brain activity in rats. They injected the rats with both nicotine and alcohol, and then studied brain activity in the animals as they slept. The researchers found that nicotine goes through the basal forebrain and cancels out the sleep-causing effects of alcohol.
Questions 23 to 25 are based on the recording you have just heard.
23.What’s the relationship between drinking and smoking according to the new research?
24.Why do alcohol drinkers want to smoke?
25.What can we learn about basal forebrain?