TEXT FIFTEEN

In a world where sight and sound seem to reign supreme, all it takes is a cursory glance at the size of the perfume industry to realise that smell matters quite a lot, too. Odours are known to regulate moods, thoughts and even dating decisions, which is why any serious romantic will throw on the eau de toilette before going out for a night on the town. Yet in all these cases, those affected are aware of what they are smelling. Unlike the media of sight and sound, in which subliminal messages have been studied carefully, the potential power of subliminal smells has been neglected.

Wen Li and her colleagues at Northwestern University in Chicago are now changing that. In particular, they are investigating smells so faint that people say they cannot detect them. The idea is to see whether such smells can nevertheless change the way that people behave towards others.

Dr Li's experiment, the results of which have just been published in Psychological Science, employed 31 volunteers. These people were exposed to three different odours at low concentration. One was the fresh lemon scent of citral. The second was the neutral ethereal perfume of anisole. The third was the foul sweaty smell of valeric acid. And the concentrations really were low. In the case of valeric acid, for example, that concentration was seven parts per trillion—a level only just detectable by bloodhounds. As a control, Dr Li used a mineral oil that has no detectable smell at any concentration.

The participants were asked to sniff a jar containing either one of the three odours or the scentless oil, and then press a button to indicate whether they thought the jar smelled of anything. Immediately after that, a picture of a face would appear on a screen in front of them for just over a second. Each participant was asked to rate the face's “likeability”.

Dr Li found that the odours helped shape people's judgments about the faces when their responses indicated that they had not smelled anything. When someone had been exposed to valeric acid, for example, he tended to react negatively to a face. Exposure to citral, by contrast, made that face seem, on average, more friendly. (Obviously, the same face was not shown to any given participant more than once.) Even more intriguing, however, was that when participants did consciously perceive a smell, its effect on face-perception disappeared.

What is going on is unclear. If smells can carry useful information about personality (which is possible), then the effect would be expected to be the same whether or not the chemical in question is detected subliminally. If they do not carry such information, then it is hard to see what use the subliminal reaction is. Nevertheless, it is there.

The findings do, however, demonstrate what might be a powerful method of manipulation. Indeed, Dr Li considers the potential uses to be vast. Business meetings might be made more pleasant by releasing appropriate fragrances into the air in unsmellable amounts. Conversely, fights might be started by putting people in the presence of a faint foul odour. Advertising hoardings might benefit from a little olfactory tweaking and cinema audiences could be reduced to floods of tears at the appropriate moment. The sweet smell of success might, in other words, actually be undetectable.

1. Dr. Li is carrying out such an investigation in order to _____.

[A] find out how smells regulate moods in a subtle and nuanced way

[B] prove that smell plays an equally important role in daily life as that of sight and sound

[C] find out if people are sensitive to faint smells

[D] find out if faint smells could influence people’s judgement of others

2.The mineral oil is used in Dr. Li’s experiment to _____.

[A] control the concentration of odours in a slightly detectable degree

[B] act as a group of comparison with that of the other smells

[C] regulate the participants’ moods by decreasing the smell’s concentration

[D] protect the participants from losing sense of smell

3. The word “likeability” (Line 3, Paragraph 4) most probably means_____.

[A] similarity

[B] likeness

[C] loveliness

[D] likelihood

4. When the participants conciously smelt the valeric acid, they tended to_____.

[A] make  negative judgement to  a face

[B] make positive judgement to a face

[C] make biased judgement to a face

[D] make fair judgement to a face

5. From Dr. Li’s experiment, it can be infered that_____.

[A] one’s reaction to subliminal smells reflect useful information about his or her personality

[B] subliminal smells can influence people’s interaction with each other

[C] subliminal smells have no effect on people’s conscious face-perception.

[D] subliminal smells turn out to be a means of powerful manipulation in terms of business success.

文章剖析：

这篇文章介绍了细微气味对人们的影响。文章第一段讲述虽然气味在人们生活中占有重要地位，但是细微气味潜在力量却为人所忽视；第二段讲述李博士正在进行试验研究细微气味；第三、第四、第五讲述了李博士试验的具体情况；第六段讲述还有待研究的问题；第七段讲述这个发现的意义和作用。

词汇注释：

cursory adj. 粗略的, 草率的                                          subliminal adj. 潜在意识的，微小的

citral n. [化]柠檬醛                                                         ethereal adj.轻的, 天上的, 象空气的

valeric acid n. 缬草酸; 戊酸                                          bloodhound n. 警犬

hoarding　ｎ．招贴板，广告牌                                        olfactory adj. 嗅觉的

tweak v. 调节，拧

难句突破：

(1)   Odours are known to regulate moods, thoughts and even dating decisions, which is why any serious romantic will throw on the eau de toilette before going out for a night on the town.

[主体句式] Odours are known to …

[结构分析]这是一个简单句，which 引导的非限定性定语从句是用来修是前面的整个句子的。

[句子译文]大家知道，气味可以调节人的情绪、想法，甚至是约会决定，这也就是为什么任何浪漫的人晚上在到城里赴约去时总要喷上点香水。

(2)   If smells can carry useful information about personality (which is possible), then the effect would be expected to be the same whether or not the chemical in question is detected subliminally.

[主体句式] If… then…

[结构分析]这是一个带有条件状语从句的复杂句，在后面分句中，有一个条件状语从句。

[句子译文]如果气味带有个性信息（这是有可能的），那么不管这种化学是否可以潜意识地被感觉到，那么反应应当是一样的。

题目分析：

[答案]D

[难度系数] ☆☆☆

[分析] 推理题。文章介绍了李博士的实验，可以看出，该实验的对象是微弱的、人们靠嗅觉闻不到的气味。主要研究这种气味能否影响人们对于他人的行为，从试验详细描述来看，主要是人们对于他人的印象和判断。其中文章的第一段和第二段分别谈到“和视觉和声音媒介不同的是，它们其中微小的讯息已经被仔细研究过了，而细微的气味潜在的力量却被人们忽略了”、“特别的是，他们现在研究的气味非常微弱，人们都说他们感觉不到这些气味。他们想看看这些气味是不是也可以影响人们对他人的行为”等都说明了所有答案中D最为吻合文章的意思。

[答案] B

[难度系数] ☆☆

[分析] 推理题。文章第三段指出，李博士在实验中用一种完全没有气味的矿物油作为control，这里control的意思是在对照实验中被用作对照标准的一个或一组物体。不过这个意思比较生僻，考生可能不知道。那么可以根据实验中它的作用推断出来，它是绝对无味的，可以和其他的气味的实验结果对照。如果考生拥有足够的常识，也会知道在一般的科学实验中，为了保证试验结果的有效性，通常需要设置一个对照组。那么，答案B最为符合题意。

[答案] C

[难度系数] ☆☆☆

[分析] 猜词题。根据上下文来判断该词的意思，试验要求参与者给看到的脸做一个判定，判定的内容可以根据实验结果看出来，是让参与者判断所看到的脸是否“可亲”，因此，可以断定这个词的意思是C。

[答案]D

[难度系数] ☆☆☆

[分析]推理题。第五段提到很让人费解的是，当参与者意识到自己闻到了一种气味，那么对脸的判断的影响就消失了。实验中参与者在没有意识地闻到这种草酸味时，他会对脸有一种否定的判断，但是当他意识到自己闻到时，这种影响就没有了。那么可以推断，他对脸的判断就比较公允了，答案D最为符合。

[答案]B

[难度系数] ☆☆☆☆

[分析] 推理题。李博士的实验主要是为了看看细微的气味能否影响人们对他人的看法和印象,根据实验结果,参与者在闻了细微气味后会对看到的脸产生一定的反应,因此,可以得出结论,细微的气味能够影响对他人的行为。选项A，文章中提到有可能有这种可能，但是还没有证实。C不是该实验的一个主要结论，且该论点也没有得到证实。D选项的相关内容在文章的最后一段有所涉及，但是这只是对前景的推测，结论还没有得到证实。因此，答案应该选B。

参考译文：

在一个视觉和声音占了绝对上风的世界，只须随便看一下香水行业的规模就能明白气味也占有很重要的地位。大家知道，气味可以调节人的情绪、想法，甚至是约会决定，这也就是为什么任何浪漫的人晚上在到城里赴约去时总要喷上点香水。但是所有的这些事例中，那些受到影响的人是意识到自己闻到的是什么的。和视觉和声音媒介不同的是，它们其中微小的讯息已经被仔细研究过了，而细微的气味潜在的力量却被人们忽略了。

李文和她芝加哥西北大学的同事们现在就在改变这种状况。特别的是，他们现在研究的气味非常微弱，人们都说他们感觉不到这些气味。他们想看看这些气味是不是也可以影响人们对他人的行为。

李博士的实验结果刚刚发表在《心理科学》上，该实验有31名志愿者。这些志愿者身处三种低浓度的气味中，一种是新鲜柠檬的柠檬醛气味，第二种是茴香醚的中性轻香味，第三种是缬草酸的汗臭味。这三种气味的浓度都很低。比如，缬草酸的汗臭味浓度为万亿分之七，这个浓度只有警犬才能发觉。李博士在每种浓度中都用了一种矿物油作为对照，这种矿物油的气味是发觉不到的。

这些志愿者都被要求嗅装有某一种气味或无味的油的罐子，然后再按下按钮表示自己是否闻到什么了。闻完后马上会在他们面前的屏幕上出现一张脸的图像，只显示一秒钟。然后每个人都会被要求断定这张脸的“可爱程度”。

李博士发现当他们的反应是闻到了什么味道时，这些味道会对人们对脸的评价起作用。比如某人闻到缬草酸时，他对看到的脸就会有不好的反应。而相反的，闻到柠檬酸的一般会让脸看起来更友好些。（当然，每张脸只给同一个人看一次。）但是，更奇怪的是当参与者意识到自己闻到了某种味道时，对脸的理解反映就消失了。

这到底是怎么回事还不清楚。如果气味带有个性信息（这是有可能的），那么不管这种化学是否可以潜意识地被感觉到，那么反应应当是一样的。如果不带有这种信息，就很难看出这种潜意识的反应有什么用了。但不管怎样，事实摆在我们面前。

但是这些发现展现出什么可能成为强有力的控制方法。实际上，李博士认为这种潜力是巨大的。如果在喷洒些适当的香味但人们却闻不到，商业会议会让人感觉更加舒适。相反地，让人们带在很微弱的臭味中，就可能发生争斗。广告牌可以受益于一点气味调节，而电影观众在适当时候加气味可能会泪如泉涌。换句话说，胜利的气味是无法觉察的。