Question

Some people surveyed tasted the sweet, salty, and crunchy together with other tastes of food as they listen to different noises. It shows that louder noises reduced the reported sweetness or saltiness of food while increasing the measure of crunchiness(松脆).

It may go some way to explain why airline food is widely complained about by both the workers and passengers. Andy Woods, a researcher, said, “It’s a general opinion that plane foods aren’t fantastic, but I’m sure airlines do their best, so we wondered if there were other reasons. One thought was that perhaps the background noise may have an effect. NASA gives their space explorers very strong-tasting foods, because for some reason, they can’t taste food that strongly—again, it may have something to do with the background noise.”

In a study, 48 people were fed sweet foods or salty ones, while listening to nothing or noise through earphones. Meanwhile they rated(划分等级) the foods. In noisier settings, foods were rated less salty or sweet than they were when it was silent, but were rated crunchier. “The evidence shows that if the background noise is loud, your attention might be drawn to that, away from the food.” Dr. Woods said.

“We are still at an early stage of progressing and this is a rather small study to really draw definitive(最完整可靠的) conclusions from,” Dr Woods said, “but they suggest that restaurants could well adapt their choice of food for a given environment.”

Also in the group’s findings there is the suggestion that the overall satisfaction with the food is also related to the degree to which people like what they are hearing.

1.How does the food taste when it is eaten in a noisy environment?

A. Less salty but crunchier.B. Sweeter and saltier.

C. Sweeter but less crunchy.D. Less sweet and crunchy.

2.Why does NASA give their space explorers very strong-tasting foods?

A. Foods become less tasty in space.

B. The explorers lose their sense of taste in space.

C. Loud noises in space may weaken the explorers’ sense of taste.

D. The explorers need tastier foods to keep energetic in space.

3.We can infer from what Dr. Woods said in the 4th paragraph that ________.

A. the environment influences the food a restaurant sells

B. the researchers have made an effective conclusion

C. music will weaken people’s sense of taste while eating

D. listening to nothing while eating is the best choice

4. What would be the best title for the text?

A. The best dinner environment

B. How to change plane foods

C. Listening to music while eating

D. Background noise affects the taste of foods

Answer

1.A

2.C

3.A

4.D

【解析】

试题分析：本文主要讲述了噪音对味觉的影响。

1. 细节理解题。根据文章第一段It shows that louder noises reduced the reported sweetness or saltiness of food while increasing the measure of crunchiness.可知，噪音越大，食物的甜度和咸度将会降低，相反，松脆度将会升高，故选A。

2. 细节理解题。根据文章第二段NASA gives their space explorers very strong-tasting foods, because for some reason, they can’t taste food that strongly—again, it may have something to do with the background noise.可知，美国航天局给了飞行员一些很重口味的食物，因为一些原因，他们尝到的食物口味没有那么重，这再一次证明可能与噪音有关，故选C。

3. 推理判断题。根据文章第四段but they suggest that restaurants could well adapt their choice of food for a given environment.可知，他们建议饭店要让食物与周围的环境相协调，故选A。

4. 主旨大意题。根据文章第一段Some people surveyed tasted the sweet, salty, and crunchy together with other tastes of food as they listen to different noises.（有人做了这样一项调查，当听到不同噪音的时候，食物的甜度，咸度和松脆度不同，）以及全文内容可知，文章主要讲了食物的甜度，咸度和松脆度与噪音的关系，故选D。

考点：考查科学研究类短文读