四级阅读理解美文
美国一项研究显示，女性通过腋下气味识别生物性相关信息的能力很可能更强。
(1) Researchers found it was difficult to mask underarm odour when a woman was doing the smelling, but quite easy to do so when it was a man.
(1)研究人员发现，用其他气味来蒙蔽女性对腋下气味的识别是比较困难的。相比之下，男性则更好蒙骗。
They speculate that a woman's highly attuned smell radar might help her select a mate.
研究人员由此猜测，女性敏锐的嗅觉可能有助于她们选择适合自己的伴侣。
The study, by Philadelphia's Monell Center, appears in Flavour and Fragrance Journal.
由费城蒙尼奥研究中心组织的这项研究成果已经在《香料与香味杂志》上发表。
In the study, women and men rated the strength of underarm odours, both alone and in conjunction with various fragrances.
参与试验的女性和男性分别用鼻子去闻两组腋下气味，一组是独立的腋下气味，另一组是腋下气味与其他多种香味混合而成的气味。
The fragrances were selected to test their ability to block underarm odour through a method known as olfactory cross-adaptation.
研究人员利用嗅觉交到主应的方法来测试他们辨别腋下气味的能力。
This occurs when the nose adapts to one odour, and then also becomes less sensitive to a second odour.
采用这种测试方法是因为一旦鼻子对第一种气味适应之后，它对第二种气味的判断灵敏度就减弱了。
Sniffed alone, the underarm odours smelled equally strong to men and women.
当男女在闻独立腋下气味的时候，男女的辨别能力旗鼓相当。
But when fragrance was introduced, only two of 32 scents successfully blocked underarm odour when women were doing the smelling.
但是当腋下气味中混合了其他香味的时候，32种气味中只有两种腋下混合气味让女性无法成功识别。
In contrast，19 fragrances significantly reduced the strength of underarm odour for men.
与之相比，19种腋下提合气味成功蒙骗了男性的鼻子。
Lead researcher Dr Charles Wysocki, a behavioural neuroscientist, said: "Taken together, our studies indicate that human sweat conveys information that is of particular importance to females.
研究小组的首席研究员、行为神经科学家查尔斯·维索斯基博士表示，综合实验结果，人类汗腺分泌的气味所传达的信息对于女性尤为
重要。
Not only were women better smellers than men, but male odours were harder to block than female odours.
不仅女性的嗅觉比男性敏锐，而且男性的体味比女性的更难隔离。
Underarm odours from the two sexes did not differ in how strong they smelled. However 19% of the fragrances successfully reduced the strength of male underarm odour, compared to over 50% for the female equivalent.
男女腋下体昧的强度其实并无差异。但是，男性香水能有效地减弱男性腋下19%的气味，而女性香水则能掩盖超过50%的体味。
(2) Dr Leslie Knapp, an expert in biological anthropology at the University of Cambridge, said there were good evolutionary reasons why a woman's ability to detect body odours should be more acute could literally be an effective way to sniff out a suitable mate.
(2)剑桥大学生物人类学专家莱斯利-纳普博士表示，女性辨别体昧的能力之所以更强是因为进化的原因，因为这样女性就可以更有效地闻出适合自己的伴侣。
She said: "Women perhaps need to be more discriminating when they choose who to mate with to produce offspring, as they invest more than males in the reproductive process.
她说:"女性可能在选择与之生育后代的伴侣时需要更有效地识别能力，所以她们在繁衍过程中具备了优于男性的某种能力。"
"Men don't need to be so choosy，they have lots of sperm, and can reproduce with lots of females, but once a woman reproduces with a partner she is tied up for nine months."
"男性不需要如此的谨慎，他们有许许多多的精子，他们可以和许多女性生育后代。而一旦女性怀孕，她们需要经历9个月的忍耐。"
Dr Knapp said there was evidence that odour gave a hint about genetic make-up. She highlighted HLA genes involved in the immune response.
纳普博士说，有证据表明，体味同时也会发出一个人基因组成的信号。她强调，人类白细胞抗原基因就与免疫功能相关。
(3) She said in evolutionary terms it was desirable for a women to mate with a man whose genes were different from hers, as this was likely to produce more robust offspring.
(3)她表示，从进化的角度来说，女性若能和与自己基因组合不同的男性结合是很好的选择，因为那样他们的下一代很可能更健康。
四六级句型讲解
1. Researchers found it was difficult to mask underarm odour when a woman was doing the smelling, but quite easy to do so when it was a man.
本句是一个复合句。 found后面是省略了引导词的宾语从句，作found的宾语。其中it是形式主语，真正的主语是后面的不定式短语to mask underarm odour。后面两个when分别引导两个时间状语从句。
语法重点：宾语从句，时间状语从句
2. Dr Leslie Knapp, an expert in biological anthropology at the University of Cambridge, said there were good evolutionary reasons why a woman's ability to detect body odours should be more acute could literally be an effective way to sniff out a suitable mate.
本句是一个复合句。 an expert...Cambridge是Dr Leslie Knapp的同位语。 Said后面是省略了引导词的宾语从句，充当said的宾语。其中why引导限制性定语从句，修饰reasongs。 as引导原因状语从句
语法重点：同位语，宾语从句，定语从句，原因状语从句
3. She said in evolutionary terms it was desirable for a women to mate with a man whose genes were different from hers, as this was likely to produce more robust offspring.
本句是一个复合句，said后面是省略了引导词的宾语从句，充当said的宾语。其中it是形式主语，真正的主语是后面的不定式短语to mate with a man. whose引导定语从句，修饰man. as引导原因状语从句。
语法重点：宾语从句，形式主语，定语从句，原因状语从句
四级阅读理解美文：木乃伊曾患心脏病
Researchers said they found evidence of hardening of the arteries in Egyptian mummies dating as far back as 3,500 years, challenging longstanding assumptions that cardiovascular disease is mainly a malady of modern societies.
研究人员表示，他们在3500年前的古埃及木乃伊身上发现了动脉硬化的证据，驳斥了人们长期以来的一种观点，即心血管疾病基本上是现代社会才有的。
(l) A team of heart-imaging experts and Egyptologists examined 22 mummies from the Egyptian National Museum of Antiquities in Cairo in a CT scanning machine, looking for evidence of calcium buildup that could indicate vascular disease.
(1)一个由心脏成像专家和埃及古树学者组成的团队用CT设备对来自开罗埃及古物国家博物馆的22具木乃伊进行了检查，寻找指示肌体患有心血管疾病的钙沉积现象。
They were able to identify the hearts, arteries or both in 16 of the mummies, nine of whom had deposits of ca1cification. (2) An analysis determined the deposits were either definite or probab1e evidence of atherosclerosis，the condition that leads to heart attacks and strokes.
他们在16具木乃伊身上辨别出了心脏或动脉，也有的两者都得到了确认。其中9具存在心血管的钙化现象。 (2)一份分析报告称，这些钙化是动脉硬化症的明确或可能证据，动脉硬化会导致心脏病和中风。
"Not only do we have atherosclerosis now, it was preva1ent as long as 3,500 years ago," said Gregory Thomas, a cardiologist and imaging specia1ist at University of Ca1ifomia, Irvine, who was principal investigator of the study. "It is part of the human condition."
负责此次调查的加州大学心脏病及成像技术专家格里高里·托马斯说，不止我们现代人有动脉硬化症，这种病早在3500年前就很常见了;它一直是人类健康状况的组成部分。
The research was presented Tuesday at the American Heart Association scientific meeting here. A report is a1so schedu1ed to appear in Wednesday's issue of the Journa1 of the American Medical Association.
本周二在美国心脏协会召开的会议上通报了此次调查。定于周三出版的美国医学协会期刊刊登相关研究报告。
Heart disease is the wor1d 's 1eading killer, and it is increasing1y common in developing countries such as China, India and in Latin America. The growing prevalence of the disease is often attributed to urbanization, fast-food diets, smoking and sedentary 1ifesty1es characteristic of Western societies.
心脏病是人类的头号杀手，而且它在中国、印度及拉丁美洲等发展中国家越来越常见。心脏病发病率攀升的现象往往被归咎于城市化、快餐饮食、吸烟以及久坐不动等西式生活方式。
Evidence of disease was found in seven of eight mummies determined to be age 45 or older, and in two of eight believed to be under 45.
在8具死亡时年龄大于等于45岁的木乃伊身上，有7具发现了动脉硬化的迹象，剩下8具年龄不足45岁的木乃伊也有2具有此病征。
Where did it come from? Researchers don't know for sure. But they noted that the mummies had all been members of upper-class Egyptian society, and their diets included meat from cattle, ducks and geese. (3) In addition, because there wasn't refrigeration，salt was commonly used to preserve meat and fish, raising the possibility that some of these Egyptians had high blood pressure. Whether anyone was obese couldn't be determined by the scans, but tobacco wasn't part of the pharaohs' lifestyle.
那么病因何在呢?研究人员目前尚不确定。但是他们指出，这些木乃伊生前都是埃及社会上层人士，他们的饮食包括牛肉、鸭肉和鹅肉。(3)此外，由于没有冰箱为食物保鲜，保存鱼类和肉食的办法往往是盐渍，加大了这些埃及人罹患高血压的可能性。通过CT扫描无法得知这些法老们中有谁生前肥胖，不过，在那个年代他们肯定是不抽烟的。
The researchers couldn 't be determined whether any among the group of Egyptians had actually died of cardiovascular disease.
研究人员也无法确定这些法老当中是否有人真正死于心血管疾病。
四六级句型讲解
1. A team of heart-imaging experts and Egyptologists examined 22 mummies from the Egyptian National Museum of Antiquities in Cairo in a CT scanning machine, looking for evidence of calcium buildup that could indicate vascular disease.
本句是一个复合句。本句主句是A team of heart-imaging experts and Egyptologists examined 22 mummies...,from the the Egyptian National Museum of Antiquities in Cairo介词短语作后置定语，修饰mummies。in a CT scanning machine介词短语作状语。looking for...disease现在分词短语作目的状语。其中that引导限制性定语从句，修饰calcium buildup。
语法重点：介词短语作定语，介词短语作状语，分词短语作状语
2. An analysis determined the deposits were either definite or probab1e evidence of atherosclerosis，the condition that leads to heart attacks and strokes.
本句是一个复合句。determined后面是省略了引导词that的宾语从句，充当determined的宾语。其中either...or...连接两个并列的结构。the condition是atherosclerosis的同位语，that引导定语从句，修饰 condition。
语法重点：宾语从句，并列结构，定语从句
3. In addition, because there wasn't refrigeration，salt was commonly used to preserve meat and fish, raising the possibility that some of these Egyptians had high blood pressure.
本句是一个复合句，主句是salt was commonly used to preserve meat and fish，其中to preserve meat and fish不定式短语作目的状语。because引导原因状语从句。raising the possibility...pressure现在分词短语作结果状语。其中that引导同位语从句，解释说明possibility。
语法重点：不定时短语作状语，原因状语从句，分词短语作状语，同位语从句