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剑桥雅思8test2passage3真题文本
The Meaning and Power of Smell
The sense of smell, or olfaction, is powerful. Odours affect us physical, psychological and socially level. For the part, however,we breathe in the aromas which surround us without being consiously aware of their importance to us. It is only when the faculty of smell is impaired for some reason that we begin to realise the essential role the sense of smell plays in our sense of well-being.
A A survey conducted by Anthony Synott at Montreal's Concordia University asked participants to comment on how important smell was to them in their lives. It became apparent that smell can evoke strong emotional responses. A scent associated with a good experience can bring a rush of joy, while a foul odour or one associated with a bad memory may make us grimace with disgust.Respondents to the survey noted that many of their olfactory likes and dislikes were based on emotional associations. Such associations can be powerful enough so that odours that we would generally label unpleasant become agreeable, and those that we would generally consider fragrant become disagreeable forparticular individuals. The perception of smell, therefore, consists not only of the sensation of the odours themselves, but of the experiences and emotions associated with them.
B Odours are also essential cues in social bonding. Onerespondent to the survey believed that there is no true emotional bonding without touching and smelling a loved one. In fact, infants recognise the odours of their mothers soon after birth and adults can often identify their children or spouses by scent. In one well-known test, women and men were able to distinguish by smell alone clothingworn by their marriage partners from similar clothing worn by other people. Most of the subjects would probably never have given much thought to odour as a cue for identifying family members before being involved in the test, but as the experiment revealed, even when not consciously considered, smells register.
C In spite of its importance to our emotional and sensory lives, smell is probably the most undervalued sense in many cultures. The reason often given for the low regard in which smell is held is that, in comparison with its importance among animals, the human sense of smell is feeble and undeveloped. While it is true that the olfactorypowers of humans are nothing like as fine as those possessed by certain animals, they are still remarkably acute. Our noses are able to recognise thousands of smells, and to perceive odours which are present only in extremely small quantities.
D Smell, however, is a highly elusive phenomenon. Odours, unlike colours, for instance, cannot be named in many languages because the specific vocabulary simply doesn't exist. 'It smells like…., ' we have to say when describing an odour, struggling to express ourolfactory experience. Nor can odours be recorded: there is no effective way to either capture or store them over time. In the realmof olfaction, we must make do with descriptions and recollections.This has implications for olfactory research.
E Most of the research on smell undertaken to date has been of a physical scientific nature. Significant advances have been made in the understanding of the biological and chemical nature ofolfaction, but many fundamental questions have yet to be answered.Researchers have still to decide whether smell is one sense or two - one responding to odours proper and the other registering odourless chemicals in the air. Other unanswered questions are whether the nose is the only part of the body affected by odours, and how smells can be measured objectively given the nonphysical components.Questions like these mean that interest in the psychology of smell is inevitably set to play an increasingly important role for researchers.
F However, smell is not simply a biological and psychologicalphenomenon. Smell is cultural, hence it is a social and historicalphenomenon. Odours are invested with cultural values: smells that are considered to be offensive in some cultures may be perfectly acceptable in others. Therefore, our sense of smell is a means of, and model for, interacting with the world. Different smells can provide us with intimate and emotionally charged experiences and the value that we attach to these experiences is interiorised by the members of society in a deeply personal way. Importantly, our commonly held feelings about smells can help distinguish us from other cultures. The study of the cultural history of smell is, therefore, in a very real sense, an investigation into the essence of human culture.
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广州雅思英语学校成立于1999年,现任校长是有中国雅思“教父”之称的中国社会科学院博士、中国雅思教育开拓者,资深留学教育专家万昌明博士。广州雅思英语学校是国内最早的专业雅思学校之一,也是英语IELTS考试中文“雅思”命名的首创者之一。十九年来, 广州雅思英语学校秉承“教育以学生为本,以质量为先”办学宗旨,坚持“知识、激情、励志”的教学理念,发展成为华南乃至中国最大的雅思学校之一。
