Question

Nisha Pradhan is worried. The recent college graduate just turns 21 and plans to live on her own. But she’s afraid she won’t be able to stay safe. That’s because she isn’t able to smell.

Back home, her family do her smelling for her. She’s moved in with them for now, but she’s looking for a place of her own. “Now that I’m searching for ways or place to live as an independent person, I find that the sense of smell is important to how we live our lives,” Pradhan says.

She says when she was a child she liked to eat and ate a lot. But there came a point where she lost interest in food.

“One of the first things that people notice whenever they have a smell problem is that food doesn’t taste right any-more,” says Beverly Cowart, a researcher. That’s because eating and smell go hand in hand. How food tastes often relies on what we smell. “When you lose your sense of smell, your whole sense of food flavor s changed and reduced,” Cowart says, “You can still taste the basic tastes. What you’re missing are the small distinctions.”

“When I go out to eat I have often found that that food is very tasteless to me. I never feel full,” she says. “I think a lot of us today like to pretend to be food lovers and we all like to talk about ‘Oh, I think this could use a little bit more flavor,’ or ‘I think this has a hint of meat,’ I can’t really participate in those conversations,” she says.

Pradam thinks her smell loss also may have affected her memory. Pradhan may be on to something, according to biologist Paul Moore. “When smell signals come in, you feel about them first. And then you think about it and then the memory is laid down. So without the feel part, the thinking about its part doesn’t come. And that means no new smell memory gets created.”

1.What problem does Pradhan meet with at present?

A. That she has no sense of smell.

B. That she doesn’t have her own house.

C. That she lacks life skills to live alone.

D. That she is too nervous to live alone.

2.What can we infer from what Beverly Cowart said?

A. People with a smell problem have no food tastes.

B. Lack of smell sense makes eating a dull experience.

C. Different food tastes the same for people of smell loss.

D. People feel hungry easily for lack of smell sense.

3.When eating out, Pradhan_______.

A. has a sense of being full quickly B. often has a good appetite

C. pretends to have good smell sense D. feels left out sometimes

4.What does the underlined sentence mean?

A. Pradhan may be crazy. B. Pradhan may be foolish.

C. Pradhan may be right. D. Pradhan may be forgettable.

Answer 1