雅思阅读全真练习系列（十四）

　　7.Turin's explanation for these smelly facts invokes the idea that the smell signal in olfactory receptor proteins is triggered not by an odour molecule's shape, but by its vibrations, which can enourage an electron to jump between two parts of the receptor in a quantum-mechanical process called tunnelling. This electron movement could initiate the smell signal being sent to the brain.

　　8.This would explain why isotopes can smell different: their vibration frequencies are changed if the atoms are heavier. Turin's mechanism, says Marshall Stoneham of the UCL team, is more like swipe-card identification than a key fitting a lock.

　　9.Vibration-assisted electron tunnelling can undoubtedly occur — it is used in an experimental technique for measuring molecular vibrations. "The question is whether this is possible in the nose," says Stoneham's colleague, Andrew Horsfield.

　　10.Stoneham says that when he first heard about Turin's idea, while Turin was himself based at UCL, "I didn't believe it". But, he adds, "because it was an interesting idea, I thought I should prove it couldn't work. I did some simple calculations, and only then began to feel Luca could be right." Now Stoneham and his co-workers have done the job more thoroughly, in a paper soon to be published in Physical Review Letters.

　　11.The UCL team calculated the rates of electron hopping in a nose receptor that has an odorant molecule bound to it. This rate depends on various properties of the biomolecular system that are not known, but the researchers could estimate these parameters based on typical values for molecules of this sort.

　　12.The key issue is whether the hopping rate with the odorant in place is significantly greater than that without it. The calculations show that it is — which means that odour identification in this way seems theoretically possible.

　　13.But Horsfield stresses that that's different from a proof of Turin's idea. "So far things look plausible, but we need proper experimental verification. We're beginning to think about what experiments could be performed."

　　14.Meanwhile, Turin is pressing ahead with his hypothesis. "At Flexitral we have been designing odorants exclusively on the basis of their computed vibrations," he says. "Our success rate at odorant discovery is two orders of magnitude better than the competition." At the very least, he is putting his money where his nose is.

　　(668 words Nature)

　　Questions 1-4Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage? Please write

　　TRUEif the statement agrees with the writer

　　FALSEif the statement does not agree with the writer

　　NOT GIVENif there is no information about this in the passage

　　1.The result of the study at UCL agrees with Turin’s theory.

　　2.The study at UCL could conclusively prove what Luca Turin has hypothesized.

　　3.Turin left his post at UCL and started his own business because his theory was ignored.

　　4.The molecules of alcohols and those of thiols look alike.

　　Questions 5-9Complete the sentences below with words from the passage. Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

　　5.The hypothesis that we smell by sensing the molecular vibration was made by ______.

　　6.Turin’s company is based in ______.

　　7.Most scientists believed that our nose works in the same way as our ______.

　　8.Different isotopes can smell different when ______ weigh differently.

　　9.According to Audrew Horsfield, it is still to be proved that ______ could really occur in human nose.

　　Question 10-12Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

　　10.What’s the name of the researcher who collaborated with Stoneham?

　　11.What is the next step of the UCL team’s study?

　　12.What is the theoretical basis in designing odorants in Turin’s company?

　　副标题#e#