2017考研英语阅读每日精选：没有声音的闹钟

　　考研英语阅读真题中的文章，多摘自英美主流外刊，有时候你认识所有单词、搞清全部语法还不够，还需要了解英美文化，掌握他们的表达方式，这就是阅读的潜台词。有时候是一些俗语和俚语，有时候是固定搭配，有时候需要借助历史、风俗、文化才能理解某种现象或表达。总之，这些地道的英语文章背后都有潜台词，一般人不容易读出，但往往是理解文章的关键。

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　　This scent-producing alarm clock wakes you up with the smell of coffee and croissants

　　没有声音的闹钟：让香味唤醒你

　　Nobody likes waking up in the morning to the nagging, electronic bleep of regular alarm clocks or smartphones, but the smell of just-baked croissants and freshly roasted coffee? Now you’re talking.

　　没有人喜欢早晨普通闹钟或智能手机里闹铃发出的吵闹不休的声音，那刚烤好的羊角面包和刚煮好的咖啡的味道呢?这还差不多。

　　The Sensorwake, currently debuting at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, takes a vastly different approach to getting your attention when it’s time to wake up. Instead of using sound to stir you, the clock uses smell, thanks to the "timed release of an aroma of your choice".

　　气味闹钟最近在拉斯维加斯举行的消费电子展上首次登台亮相，它采用一种完全不同的方式喊你起床。比起利用声音来刺激你，这个闹钟会利用你事先选择好的香味喊你起床。

　　The brainchild of 19-year-old Guillaume Rolland, an engineering student from France, the Sensorwake was successfully crowd-funded last year to the tune of US$200,000, and Rolland is now taking pre-orders for retail units that will ship in the first half of 2016.

　　法国19岁的工科学生纪尧姆?罗兰德想出了气味闹钟这个主意，去年他成功地利用这个想法众筹到了20万美元。现在罗兰德接受零售单位预定，第一批产品将在2016年上半年陆续发出。

　　The device functions a little bit like a toaster, with reusable scent capsules inserted into a slot along the top edge of the clock. Each capsule lasts for "30 awakenings", meaning you’ll get about a month out of a scent before you need to replace it.

　　气味闹钟的工作原理有点类似烤面包机，人们需在闹钟顶部插入能重复使用的气味胶囊。每个胶囊能叫醒你30次，意味着你在需要替换气味胶囊之前，可以闻一个月的香味。

　　At launch, there will be six aromas available via the Sensorwake website, with plans to sell them via retail outlets later (provided the product is enough of a success, we’re guessing).

　　该闹钟面世之后将在气味闹钟网站上推出六种香味胶囊，罗兰德打算随后通过零售商来出售香味胶囊(如果产品足够成功的话)。

　　Aromas are bundled in packs. There’s the delicious-sounding ’Continental Breakfast Pack’, which comes with one Espresso aroma capsule and one Hot Croissant capsule. The ’Enjoy the Break Pack’ includes Seaside (monoi, tiare flower) and Lush Jungle (cut grass, leaves). There’s also the ’Vitalisation Aromatherapy Pack’, which offers a Chocolate aroma plus Invigorating Peppermint. Mmm!

　　香味胶囊以组合套装的形式出售。有听起来很美味的“欧式早餐套装”，使用者们能闻到浓缩咖啡和热羊角面包的香味。“享受休憩时光套装”则能让你闻到海的味道(摩诺伊油、提亚蕾花)和热带丛林的味道(草和树叶割开的味道)。还有“活力香味套装”，能让你闻到巧克力和让人精力充沛的薄荷气味。

　　But do scents work as well as a regular audio alarm in terms of waking you up? While we might hate the sound of conventional alarms, they seem to be jarringly effective for most regular sleepers. Rolland claims that the Sensorwake is just as good as audio alarms, with internal testing showing his scent-based alarm wakes 99 percent of people in 2 minutes.

　　但气味真的能像普通闹钟一样把你叫醒吗?虽然我们很厌恶闹钟的声音，但其实对于大部分沉睡者来说它们才是最有效的闹钟。罗兰德宣称气味闹钟和发出声音的闹钟一样好，内部测试表明他的气味闹钟能在两分钟内叫醒99%的人。

　　While the Sensorwake could be as effective as Rolland claims, previous research on the rousing abilities of scents hasn’t been so positive. A 1997 study by fire and rescue workers in Irondale, Alabama was designed to test whether adults woke up in the presence of smoke, water and citrus odours. Of 10 sleeping participants, only two woke up when exposed to the aromas.

　　气味闹钟的效果如何我们尚无法判定，不过先前有研究发现气味叫醒人们的能力不容乐观。1997年一项测试了阿拉巴马州艾昂戴尔消防员的研究，利用烟味、水和柑橘味来叫醒他们。在十名参与者中，仅两人在闻到味道之后醒了过来。

　　A subsequent study at Brown University in 2004 also found that scents were not particularly effective at waking sleepers. Pepperment and pyridine scents were presented in different concentrations to sleepers at different stages of sleep. The odours scored mixed results, while audio tones played over a speaker were significantly more effective at rousing the sleepers, leading the researchers to conclude that "human olfaction is not reliably capable of alerting a sleeper".

　　2004年布朗大学一项后续研究也发现，气味并不能有效地叫醒沉睡者。他们给陷入不同睡眠阶段的参与者闻不同浓度的薄荷味和氮苯味，参与者们的反应不一，但发出声音的闹钟效果明显更好。这促使研究人员们得出“人类的嗅觉并不足以叫醒一名沉睡者”的结论。

　　The Sensorwake comes with an insurance policy for any sleepers who aren’t roused by its primary feature. For extra-heavy sleepers or those with stuffed noses who don’t register the scent, there’s a backup audio alarm that’s triggered to go off if the aroma hasn’t woken you up within 3 minutes.

　　气味闹钟还为每个沉睡者们准备了保险措施，避免他们出现醒不来的情况。对于那些酣睡者或闻不到气味的鼻塞者，如果气味闹钟在3分钟内还没有叫醒你，那么备用的声音闹钟就会被触发。

　　来源:China Daily

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