It seems that you don’t think about your nose getting tired. You can smell grass after your neighbor cuts the lawn. You can smell delicious pizza baking as you walk by the pizza store. You can definitely smell the sour smell of your brother’s feet when he takes off his sneakers on a sweaty summer day. In fact, according to research published in Nature, your nose can detect about one trillion smells!
But your own underarms could give off unpleasant smells and you might not be able to tell: Humans tend to suffer from what scientists call olfactory fatigue (嗅觉疲劳); our sense of smell just gets plain tired out by familiar odors and stops detecting them. Believe it or not, that can actually be a good thing.
Pamela Dalton,a psychologist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, explained to the Washington Post that we filter out the same-old smells to make room for detecting new, strange smells—such as ones that might alert us to danger, like something burning, or something good to eat like that pizza. When these smells float past us, smell receptors in our noses detect their particular chemical components and send electrical signals to the frontal cortex (皮层) of our brains. And then we decide if we need to run away from fire, or get closer towards pizza.
If your sense of smell was weakened by your body odor —or other standard smells—we might not be able to detect the more important odors.
There are ways to avoid showing up to work giving smelly odors like a skunk (臭鼬). One way is to take your shirt off and sniff that instead of your skin, recommends Lifehacker. Other ways to check your own scent is to rub your skin, then smell your fingers; check your breath by licking your arm, waiting a second, then sniffing the spot. Or even quicker and easier—ask someone to give you a sniff!
12. How many ways are suggested to avoid showing up to work without a smelly odor?
13. Which is the right working order of our brain when making a decision in terms of smell?
①The smell floats past us.
②Smell receptors send electrical signals to our brains.
③Smell receptors detect the particular chemical components.
④We decide whether we need to run away or get closer.
14. Why do people tend to think their noses never get tired?
A.The noses are strong enough. |
B.They are confident in themselves. |
C.The nose can detect nearly all smells. |
D.The nose can function well in all cases. |
15. Why does the author say our sense of smell’s stopping detecting familiar odors a good thing?
A.It helps alert us to danger. |
B.It prefers new smells to old ones. |
C.It helps our sense become stronger. |
D.It can help distinguish more important smells. |