20220409气味偏好《经济学人》

Around the world,people like(and dislike)the same scents(香味/气息).     
Unlike visual (vision n.视觉)preferences,the appreciation（n.欣赏） of smells crosses （跨越）cultures.                                                     

To the Swedes(n.瑞典人。 Sweden瑞典),there are few （否定的）odours（臭味） more delectable （美好的，好闻的）than the scent of surstromming（瑞典盐腌鲱鱼）, a type of fermented （发酵的）herring（鲱鱼）（同位语解释）.To most non-Swedes there are probably few odours more repulsive (令人厌恶的)—the fish has been described variously as smelling like rancid （（油脂食物）腐臭的）cat litter（猫砂）,vaguely （略微）faecal （farces n.粪便）or even corpse(n.尸体)-like.In determining(决定) which scents people find pleasant and which they do not,surstromming suggests (替：indicate)culture must (表推测，很可能)play a sizable （相当大的）part.

段落大意：引出话题：广受瑞典人喜欢的盐腌鲱鱼让其他国家的人无法接受，文化在其中发挥了作用。

New research, however, suggests that might not be the case(实情，事实).[例句：If that is the case, we need more staff].Artin Arshamian, a neuroscientist （neuro-神经）at the Karolnska Institute （学院）in Sweden, and Asifa Majid ,a psychologist (psychiatry精神病学)at the University of Oxford, began with the expectation (期待) that culture would play an important role in determining pleasant smells. This was not just because of examples like that of (指代the example 此句采用定从，但为避免重复)fermented herring. They had noticed from their own previous(之前的)work that people from different cultures describe odours differently.They also knew from past experiments by other researchers that culture was important in determining which sorts of faces people found beautiful.Thus,they expected to see a similar phenomenon (n.现象。phenomenal.  adj =extraordinary 非凡的)with smells.

段落大意：新研究：表明对气味的偏好并非和文化有关。两位科学家一开始因为种种原因认为二者是有关的。

To study how scent and culture relate, Dr Arshamian and Dr Majid presented (v.呈现)nine different groups of people with ten odours.These varied from pleasant-smelling vanilla (n/adj 香草)extract （n.浓缩物，提取物）to isovaleric （iso-同质异构的）acid（异戊酸），the chemical responsible for the revolting （令人作呕的）scent of stinky （难闻的）socks.（袜子）（同位语）More intermediate (居中的)odours,which the team thought might split （v.使分裂）opinions, included octanoic（octo-和️八相关的）acid （辛酸）with its moderately （一般地）rancid （腐臭的）smell ;(继续列举) the sweet-smelling eugenol（丁香酚）, which comes from cloves（ n.丁香 [在卤水料包中可见] 橙子皮上插丁香煮）; and octenol（辛烯醇）, a musty （有霉味的）and earthy （泥土气息的）scent found in many mushrooms.

段落大意：研究内容：向9组人提供10种味道，从臭味到中性味道到香味都有。（此句表达good）

The cultures doing the smelling varied widely too.They included hunter-gatherer （采猎者）communities(社区) along the coast （海岸）of Mexico, subsistence(n维持生计/adj自给自足的)farmers living in the highlands of Ecuador(厄瓜多尔)，shoreline foragers(海岸线觅食者),swidden (通过割烧开垦的农田)horticulturalists （园艺种植者）living in the tropical rainforests （热带雨林）of Malaysia, and city folk (普通百姓)【住在城里的人】from Thailand and Mexico City.All 235 participants were asked to rank (v.把…排名)odours according to pleasantness(n.愉悦).The team compared their results to earlier work on New Yorkers who had been exposed to the same scents.

段落大意：研究对象来自多个地区，多种文化。研究人员将这次的结果和针对纽约人的研究进行对比。

Writing in Current Biology (当代生物 刊物名)this week,the researchers noted that pleasantness rankings of the odours /were remarkably (adv 不同寻常地)consistent（一致的） regardless of （不顾…）where people came from.The smell of isovaleric acid was reviled(v.谩骂) by the vast （巨大的）majority （大多数）of the participants, only eight giving it a score of 1 to 3 on the pleasantness scale （量表）（where 1 was very pleasant and 10 was very unpleasant.）.On the other hand, more than 190 people gave vanilla extract a score of 1 to 3 and a tiny minority(极少数), only 12 people,found it revolting （adj 令人恶心的）enough to rate（n.率/v评定） 8 to 10.Overall, the chemical composition （组成）of the odorants (添加剂)/that the researchers presented/ explained （谓语）41% of the reactions（反应） （that participants had.）In contrast(相比之下), cultural upbringing(n养育)accounted for just 6% of the results.Dr A and Dr M point out that this is very different from /how visual（视觉） perception(n.感知，看法) of faces （人脸）working——in that case （指代前面的视觉看法）a person’s culture accounts for（解释/占据） up to 50% of the explanation for which faces they find beautiful.

段落大意：研究结果：不同文化的人对气味认知相近。人的判断更多基于化学成分，而非文化背景。

Even so,while culture did not shape perceptions of odours in the way that it is known to shape perceptions of  faces,the researchers did find an"eye of the beholder（观看者）[各花入各眼]"effect.Randomness（随机性）,which /Dr Arshamian and Dr Majid suggest 插入语/has to be （一定）coming from personal preferences learned from outside individual culture,accounted for 54% of the variance(n.差异) （～in）/in which smells /people liked."Olfactory bulb （嗅球）of the beholder"does not slip off the tongue（容易说）so easily but it  too appears （显现）to be a real phenomention.

段落大意：其他发现：虽然气味偏好和文化没有太大关联，它和个人喜好还是有关系的。