听播客学英语 109 气味

 　　In the last podcast, I said that I would tell you how Birmingham did in their match against Aston Villa¹. Well, they lost 5-1. Sorry, Birmingham! Birmingham could still stay in the Premiership next season, but things are not looking good. The nail-biting continues.

　　Now for our story today. It started on Thursday evening last week. People in the south-east of England noticed a strange smell in the air. It was not a pleasant smell. Rather, it was the smell of rotten² things, of manure³ and sewage, mixed with the smell of traffic fumes⁴. People started to complain – to the newspapers and TV stations, and to the weather forecasters at the Meteorological Office. What was it?

　　Well, said the Meteorological Office, the cause of the Great Smell was this. There was a mass of cold, still air over northern Europe. There was low cloud and no wind. All sorts of smells and fumes – from industry and from farms, from traffic and from everyday life – had become trapped under the cloud. Then on Thursday, the cold air, and its smells, had moved westwards over southern England.

　　“What?” said our newspapers. “You mean, it isn’t a good, healthy English smell. It’s a nasty⁵ foreign smell.” And the newspapers started to run stories about how the smell was all the fault of the French, because we English always blame the French first whenever anything bad happens. However, it then became clear that the smell was coming, not from France, but from further north and east. So we started to blame the Germans and the Dutch, because we English always blame the Germans and the Dutch second whenever anything bad happens.

　　The Meteorological Office tried to explain that the smell was not a threat to health, and that it would blow away in the next few days. But the newspapers did not want to listen. They were having too much fun blaming foreigners.

　　The truth, of course, is this:

　　1. there was nothing more interesting for the newspapers to report;

　　2. people who live in towns get used to town smells, like traffic fumes and fast-food restaurants. They forget that there are country smells too, like the smell of manure being spread on fields.

　　3. many newspapers forget that England too has serious pollution problems. Normally⁶, the westerly winds carry our pollution over to other countries, so maybe it is fair that occasionally⁷ other countries’ polluted air comes to us.

　　And what can you learn from this story? First, remember that “smell” in English is a neutral⁸ word. We can talk about nice smells and unpleasant smells. You can tell your girlfriend that her new perfume⁹ smells lovely; and you can say that a pile of rotten rubbish smells horrible.

　　Second, there are lots of other words that you can use instead of “smell”. A delicate¹⁰, pleasant smell, like the smell of a flower, can be called a “scent”. “Aroma” is a neutral word like “smell” – there are pleasant aromas¹¹ (like dinner cooking in the kitchen) and unpleasant aromas. And a really nasty smell like the smell of sewage can be called a “stink” or a “stench”.

　　So now you know lots of words to use if you ever want to talk about the smelly English.

　　PS. I forgot – the word “odour” also means a smell, normally an unpleasant smell.

1 villa   

n.别墅，城郊小屋

参考例句：

• We rented a villa in France for the summer holidays.我们在法国租了一幢别墅消夏。
• We are quartered in a beautiful villa.我们住在一栋漂亮的别墅里。

2 rotten   

adj.腐烂(朽)的；令人不愉快的；糟糕的

参考例句：

• The book was pretty rotten.这本书糟透了。
• Rotten eggs give off a bad smell.臭蛋散发出难闻的气味。

3 manure   

n.粪，肥，肥粒；vt.施肥

参考例句：

• The farmers were distributing manure over the field.农民们正在田间施肥。
• The farmers used manure to keep up the fertility of their land.农夫们用粪保持其土质的肥沃。

4 fumes   

n.(强烈而刺激的)气味，气体

参考例句：

• The health of our children is being endangered by exhaust fumes. 我们孩子们的健康正受到排放出的废气的损害。
• Exhaust fumes are bad for your health. 废气对健康有害。

5 nasty   

adj.令人讨厌的，困难的，恶劣的，下流的

参考例句：

• She got a nasty knock on the head when she fell.她跌倒时头部受到严重碰撞。
• When this material burns，it flings off a nasty smell.这种物质燃烧时发出一股难闻的气味。

6 normally   

adv.正常地，通常地

参考例句：

• I normally do all my shopping on Saturdays.我通常在星期六买东西。
• My pulse beats normally.我脉搏正常。

7 occasionally   

adv.偶然地；非经常地

参考例句：

• He went on talking,occasionally wiping at his face with a towel.他继续说着，偶尔用毛巾擦一下脸。
• I like playing football best,but occasionally I play table tennis,too.我最喜欢踢足球，偶尔也打打乒乓球。

8 neutral   

adj.中立的，不偏不倚的；中性的

参考例句：

• Behaviour is never culturally neutral.人的行为从来都受文化的影响。
• They have maintained a consistently neutral stance.他们一直持中立态度。

9 perfume   

n.香水(料，气)；vt.使充满芳香；洒香水

参考例句：

• The air was heavy with the perfume of the flower.空气中充满了花香。
• Those roses perfume the whole garden.那些玫瑰花使满园飘香。

10 delicate   

adj.巧妙的，敏感的；易损的，娇嫩的

参考例句：

• Be careful with those wine cups — they are very delicate.当心那些酒杯—它们很容易碎。
• The delicate handicraft works will not bear rough handling.精致的手工艺品经不起粗鲁的摆弄。

11 aromas   

n.芳香( aroma的名词复数 )；气味；风味；韵味

参考例句：

• Intoxicating earth aromas induced lassitude and ethereal calm. 泥土的醉人的芳香叫人懒洋洋的，感到一种远离尘世的宁静。 来自辞典例句
• Nose and elegant nose with attractive fruity, floral and citrus fruit aromas. 芳香：优雅、馥郁、迷人的柑橘属水果的果香及花的清香。 来自互联网