美国科学60秒 SSS 2012-11-26_在线英语听力室_免费在线英语听力学习网站

(单词翻译:双击或拖选)

This is Scientific American sixty seconds science. I am Karen Hopkin. This will take just a minute.

Your morning coffee. A baking pie. That turkey in the oven. There are some smells you just can’t get enough of. But mix them and other scents² all together and you get, well, nothing much.

According to a new study, a mash-up of 20 or 30 different odors gives you something entirely³ nondescript: almost a non-smell, if you will. The finding appears in the Proceedings⁴ of the National Academy of Sciences.

If you’ve ever taken physics, you might remember that combining colors of many different wavelengths⁵ generates light that’s white. And blending sounds of many different frequencies produces white noise.

Well, researchers got to wondering whether there’s an equivalent phenomenon for olfaction: call it ‘white smell.’ So they whipped up various combinations of 80 distinct chemicals and had volunteers take a whiff. When the olfactory⁶ ingredient list topped 30, one cocktail⁷ smelled pretty much the same as any other, even when the mixtures didn’t have a single ingredient in common.

The scent¹ was not unpleasant. A professional perfumer called it “aromatic,” which is like saying that the light was, well, light. So enjoy the smells of the holiday season. But try not to sniff⁸ too many at once.

Thanks for the minute for scientific American sixty seconds science. I am Karen Hopkin.

点击

收听单词发音

1 scent
n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉
参考例句：
The air was filled with the scent of lilac.空气中弥漫着丁香花的芬芳。 The flowers give off a heady scent at night.这些花晚上散发出醉人的芳香。

2 scents
n.香水( scent的名词复数 )；气味；（动物的）臭迹；（尤指狗的）嗅觉
参考例句：
The air was fragrant with scents from the sea and the hills. 空气中荡漾着山和海的芬芳气息。 The winds came down with scents of the grass and wild flowers. 微风送来阵阵青草和野花的香气。来自《简明英汉词典》

3 entirely
ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地
参考例句：
The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。 His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

4 proceedings
n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报
参考例句：
He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。 to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼

5 wavelengths
n.波长( wavelength的名词复数 )；具有相同的/不同的思路；合拍；不合拍
参考例句：
I find him difficult to talk to—we're on completely different wavelengths. 我没法和他谈话，因为我们俩完全不对路。来自《简明英汉词典》 Sunlight consists of different wavelengths of radiation. 阳光由几种不同波长的射线组成。来自辞典例句

6 olfactory
adj.嗅觉的
参考例句：
He is to develop a sensor to substitute for the olfactory abilities of dogs.克罗克将研制一种传感器用以代替狗的嗅觉功能。 Based on these findings, Keller suspects that each person has an olfactory blind spot.根据这些发现，凯勒推断，每个人都有一个嗅觉盲区。

7 cocktail
n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物
参考例句：
We invited some foreign friends for a cocktail party.我们邀请了一些外国朋友参加鸡尾酒会。 At a cocktail party in Hollywood,I was introduced to Charlie Chaplin.在好莱坞的一次鸡尾酒会上，人家把我介绍给查理·卓别林。

8 sniff
vi.嗅…味道；抽鼻涕；对嗤之以鼻，蔑视
参考例句：
The police used dogs to sniff out the criminals in their hiding - place.警察使用警犬查出了罪犯的藏身地点。 When Munchie meets a dog on the beach, they sniff each other for a while.当麦奇在海滩上碰到另一条狗的时候，他们会彼此嗅一会儿。