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Summer brings flowers and dirt and barbeque smoke. In the most wintery places, there isn’t much outside on cold days except snow, strong wind and cars warming up. Pine needles, wood smoke and snow---these are the smells of winter, and for people who live with different seasons, wintry weather brings its own set of olfactory(嗅觉的) experiences. But why does the cold of winter smell different from the heat of summer?

One reason is that odor (气味) molecules move much more slowly as the air temperature drops, said Pamela Dalton, an olfactory scientist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. That means that there are simply fewer smells to smell on a cold, crisp day than there are on a hot and humid one. It’s the same reason why hot soup smells more than cold soup does and why the garbage truck leaves behind the strongest smells on steamy summer days.

What’s more, our noses don’t work quite well when the surrounding air is cold, Dalton said. In experiments that require biopsies(活组织检查) of olfactory receptors that lie deep inside the nose, researchers at Monell have discovered that the receptors “bury themselves a little more deeply in the nose in winter,” she said, “possibly as a protective response against cold, dry air.”

There is a strong psychological factor in our sense of smell, Hirsch added, and what we expect to smell has a big influence on what we actually smell. In The Invalid’s Story by Mark Twain, for example, a man is stuck on a train next to what he thinks is a rotting dead body but is actually a box of cheese that smells extremely unpleasant. So strongly affected by the smell, he spends too long looking for fresh air on the freezing platform and develops a fever that ends up killing him. “What you think of a smell have powerful effects on you whether you like it and whatever you think it to be,” Hirsch said. “So, if you go outside in winter and you are used to smelling snow or nuts in the fire or whatever you happen to smell outside, that’s what you will interpret smells to be.”

To cope with lack of smells in winter, many people try to burn more candles with pleasant smell, cook more sweet stews(炖菜) and bake more cookies, which creates a greater contrast between the indoor and outdoor environments. “You’re probably fond of indoor smells in the winter,” Dalton said. “Homes are closed up, and windows are closed. We concentrate on the smells of cooking and living.”

1.According to the second paragraph, Pamela Dalton will probably agree that _________.

A.air temperature affects smells’ spreading direction greatly

B.hot soup is more popular with people in winter than cold soup

C.there are not many smells available to be smelled in winter

D.a garbage truck is easier to break down in cold winter

2.The author used the story written by Mark Twain to show that _________.

A.one can easily feel terrible smell in a small space

B.one’s mind and thoughts can affect the sense of smell

C.no one can survive when there is lack of fresh air

D.one’s opinion on smell is quite different from others

3.Which of the following is NOT the measure people take to deal with lack of smells in winter?

A.Closing doors and windows B.Cooking stews

C.Burning candles D.Baking cookies

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题

少年，再来一题如何？
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