英文短篇故事（纽约）298 That "Old People" Smell

（单词翻译）

 　　Ross asked, "Do old people smell bad?" Sharon said, "They sure do. It's called 'decay¹.'" Ross laughed. He said, "No, it isn't. Decay happens to dead things. Old people aren't dead yet. They're still alive." Sharon said, "Okay, how about 'ripe²' instead of 'decay'? Whatever you call it, I don't like to be near it." Ross said, "Well, a new study just came out. It says that old people don't smell bad at all. Researchers had old people sleep in T-shirts. They had middle-aged³ people sleep in T-shirts. They had teenagers sleep in T-shirts. Each person slept in the same T-shirt for five nights straight. Then the researchers collected all the T-shirts. They didn't wash them. They asked volunteers to smell the T-shirts. The volunteers said that the old people's T-shirts smelled the best. They said that their T-shirts actually smelled pleasant." Sharon said, "Pleasant?! How old were the volunteers?"