没有声音的闹钟：让香味唤醒你

 　　Nobody likes waking up in the morning to the nagging¹, electronic bleep of regular alarm clocks or smartphones, but the smell of just-baked croissants and freshly roasted coffee? Now you're talking.

　　没有人喜欢早晨普通闹钟或智能手机里闹铃发出的吵闹不休的声音，那刚烤好的羊角面包和刚煮好的咖啡的味道呢？这还差不多。

　　The Sensorwake, currently debuting² at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, takes a vastly different approach to getting your attention when it's time to wake up. Instead of using sound to stir you, the clock uses smell, thanks to the "timed release of an aroma³ of your choice".

　　气味闹钟最近在拉斯维加斯举行的消费电子展上首次登台亮相，它采用一种完全不同的方式喊你起床。比起利用声音来刺激你，这个闹钟会利用你事先选择好的香味喊你起床。

　　The brainchild of 19-year-old Guillaume Rolland, an engineering student from France, the Sensorwake was successfully crowd-funded last year to the tune⁴ of US$200,000, and Rolland is now taking pre-orders for retail⁵ units that will ship in the first half of 2016.

　　法国19岁的工科学生纪尧姆·罗兰德想出了气味闹钟这个主意，去年他成功地利用这个想法众筹到了20万美元。现在罗兰德接受零售单位预定，第一批产品将在2016年上半年陆续发出。

　　没有声音的闹钟：让香味唤醒你

　　The device functions a little bit like a toaster, with reusable scent⁶ capsules inserted into a slot along the top edge of the clock. Each capsule lasts for "30 awakenings", meaning you'll get about a month out of a scent before you need to replace it.

　　气味闹钟的工作原理有点类似烤面包机，人们需在闹钟顶部插入能重复使用的气味胶囊。每个胶囊能叫醒你30次，意味着你在需要替换气味胶囊之前，可以闻一个月的香味。

　　At launch, there will be six aromas⁷ available via the Sensorwake website, with plans to sell them via retail outlets⁸ later (provided the product is enough of a success, we're guessing).

　　该闹钟面世之后将在气味闹钟网站上推出六种香味胶囊，罗兰德打算随后通过零售商来出售香味胶囊（如果产品足够成功的话）。

　　Aromas are bundled in packs. There's the delicious-sounding 'Continental⁹ Breakfast Pack', which comes with one Espresso aroma capsule and one Hot Croissant capsule. The 'Enjoy the Break Pack' includes Seaside (monoi, tiare flower) and Lush Jungle (cut grass, leaves). There's also the 'Vitalisation Aromatherapy Pack', which offers a Chocolate aroma plus Invigorating Peppermint¹⁰. Mmm!

　　香味胶囊以组合套装的形式出售。有听起来很美味的“欧式早餐套装”，使用者们能闻到浓缩咖啡和热羊角面包的香味。“享受休憩时光套装”则能让你闻到海的味道（摩诺伊油、提亚蕾花）和热带丛林的味道（草和树叶割开的味道）。还有“活力香味套装”，能让你闻到巧克力和让人精力充沛的薄荷气味。

　　But do scents¹¹ work as well as a regular audio alarm in terms of waking you up? While we might hate the sound of conventional alarms, they seem to be jarringly effective for most regular sleepers¹³. Rolland claims that the Sensorwake is just as good as audio alarms, with internal testing showing his scent-based alarm wakes 99 percent of people in 2 minutes.

　　但气味真的能像普通闹钟一样把你叫醒吗？虽然我们很厌恶闹钟的声音，但其实对于大部分沉睡者来说它们才是最有效的闹钟。罗兰德宣称气味闹钟和发出声音的闹钟一样好，内部测试表明他的气味闹钟能在两分钟内叫醒99%的人。

　　While the Sensorwake could be as effective as Rolland claims, previous research on the rousing abilities of scents hasn't been so positive. A 1997 study by fire and rescue workers in Irondale, Alabama was designed to test whether adults woke up in the presence of smoke, water and citrus odours. Of 10 sleeping participants, only two woke up when exposed to the aromas.

　　气味闹钟的效果如何我们尚无法判定，不过先前有研究发现气味叫醒人们的能力不容乐观。1997年一项测试了阿拉巴马州艾昂戴尔消防员的研究，利用烟味、水和柑橘味来叫醒他们。在十名参与者中，仅两人在闻到味道之后醒了过来。

　　A subsequent study at Brown University in 2004 also found that scents were not particularly effective at waking sleepers. Pepperment and pyridine scents were presented in different concentrations to sleepers at different stages of sleep. The odours scored mixed results, while audio tones played over a speaker were significantly more effective at rousing the sleepers, leading the researchers to conclude that "human olfaction is not reliably capable of alerting a sleeper¹²".

　　2004年布朗大学一项后续研究也发现，气味并不能有效地叫醒沉睡者。他们给陷入不同睡眠阶段的参与者闻不同浓度的薄荷味和氮苯味，参与者们的反应不一，但发出声音的闹钟效果明显更好。这促使研究人员们得出“人类的嗅觉并不足以叫醒一名沉睡者”的结论。

　　The Sensorwake comes with an insurance policy for any sleepers who aren't roused by its primary feature. For extra-heavy sleepers or those with stuffed noses who don't register the scent, there's a backup audio alarm that's triggered to go off if the aroma hasn't woken you up within 3 minutes.

　　气味闹钟还为每个沉睡者们准备了保险措施，避免他们出现醒不来的情况。对于那些酣睡者或闻不到气味的鼻塞者，如果气味闹钟在3分钟内还没有叫醒你，那么备用的声音闹钟就会被触发。

　　Vocabulary

　　croissant: 羊角面包

　　Espresso: 浓缩咖啡

　　monoi: 摩诺伊油

　　tiare flower: 提亚蕾花

　　citrus: 柑橘，柠檬

1 nagging   

adj.唠叨的，挑剔的；使人不得安宁的v.不断地挑剔或批评（某人）( nag的现在分词 )；不断地烦扰或伤害（某人）；无休止地抱怨；不断指责

参考例句：

• Stop nagging—I'll do it as soon as I can. 别唠叨了—我会尽快做的。
• I've got a nagging pain in my lower back. 我后背下方老是疼。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 debuting   

初次表演，初次登台（debut的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• New debuting analog thermostat welding machine, easy to operate. 新登场模拟式调温电焊台，操作简单。
• With the new tablet device that is debuting next week, Apple Inc. 苹果公司的新型平板电脑将于下周发布。

3 aroma   

n.香气，芬芳，芳香

参考例句：

• The whole house was filled with the aroma of coffee.满屋子都是咖啡的香味。
• The air was heavy with the aroma of the paddy fields.稻花飘香。

4 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

5 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

6 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。

7 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

8 outlets   

n.出口( outlet的名词复数 )；经销店；插座；廉价经销店

参考例句：

• The dumping of foreign cotton blocked outlets for locally grown cotton. 外国棉花的倾销阻滞了当地生产的棉花的销路。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They must find outlets for their products. 他们必须为自己的产品寻找出路。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 continental   

adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的

参考例句：

• A continental climate is different from an insular one.大陆性气候不同于岛屿气候。
• The most ancient parts of the continental crust are 4000 million years old.大陆地壳最古老的部分有40亿年历史。

10 peppermint   

n.薄荷，薄荷油，薄荷糖

参考例句：

• Peppermint oil is very good for regulating digestive disorders.薄荷油能很有效地调节消化系统失调。
• He sat down,popped in a peppermint and promptly choked to death.他坐下来，突然往嘴里放了一颗薄荷糖，当即被噎死。

11 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》

12 sleeper   

n.睡眠者，卧车，卧铺

参考例句：

• I usually go up to London on the sleeper. 我一般都乘卧车去伦敦。
• But first he explained that he was a very heavy sleeper. 但首先他解释说自己睡觉很沉。

13 sleepers   

n.卧铺（通常以复数形式出现）；卧车( sleeper的名词复数 )；轨枕；睡觉（呈某种状态）的人；小耳环

参考例句：

• He trod quietly so as not to disturb the sleepers. 他轻移脚步，以免吵醒睡着的人。 来自辞典例句
• The nurse was out, and we two sleepers were alone. 保姆出去了，只剩下我们两个瞌睡虫。 来自辞典例句