【英语时差8,16】人类嗅觉的奥秘（上）

（单词翻译）

Watch your dog next time you go for a walk — chances are it sniffs² at anything that might smell interesting. People sniff¹, too, when they’re trying to pick up a faint odor. It’s clear that sniffing³ helps us smell those faint odors that we wouldn’t otherwise detect, but why should a quick short inhalation make our nose any more sensitive than it is during normal breathing? The answer has to do with the maze-like structure of your nasal passage, with the nostrils⁴ at one end and the windpipe at the other, and a lot of twists, bulges⁵, and bones that disrupt the flow of air in and out. When you inhale⁶ gradually, most of the air follows the most direct path from your nostrils to your lungs. And only a little air makes it into the other parts of the nasal cavity.