Some people love spicy2 foods. Others can’t stand them. Scientists now thinkthey know why. A new study found that there are three groups of tasters3. Theyare non-tasters， medium-tasters， and super-tasters.

有些人喜歡辛辣的食物，其他人則忍受不了。科學(xué)家現(xiàn)在認(rèn)為自己知道原因了。一項(xiàng)新的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)有三組品嘗者，即遲鈍品嘗者、中等品嘗者和超級(jí)品嘗者。

The number of taste buds4 on the tasters’tongues5 is the most importantthing to think about in the study. Some people do not have very many taste buds.Other people have a lot. If you count the number of taste buds on people’stongues， it will be different from one person to another.

舌頭上味蕾的數(shù)量是研究中需要考慮的最關(guān)鍵的一點(diǎn)。有些人沒(méi)有很多味蕾，而其他人有很多。如果你數(shù)一數(shù)一個(gè)人舌頭上的味蕾數(shù)量，就會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)情況因人而異。

Go ahead！ Count how many you have in a 1cm by 1 cm square. Non-tasters have about fivetaste buds， while super-tasters have about thirty！

去吧！數(shù)一數(shù)在1 厘米乘以1 厘米大小的正方形里你有多少個(gè)味蕾。遲鈍品嘗者大約有五個(gè)味蕾，而超級(jí)品嘗者大約有30 個(gè)！

Scientists also noticed that there were three times asmany super-taster women as men. About 35% of all womenare super-tasters. On the other hand， only 10% of men aresuper-tasters.

科學(xué)家還注意到，味覺(jué)超級(jí)敏銳的女性是男性的三倍。大約35%的女性是超級(jí)品嘗者。另一方面，只有10%的男性是超級(jí)品嘗者。

What’s more， super -tasters are more sensitive6 to akind of bitter chemical7. Foods such as grapefruit， chocolate， and coffee have alot of it in them. These foods are hard for super-tasters to eat. Medium-tastersdo not mind eating such bitter foods. And non-tasters hardly notice any bittertaste at all.

此外，超級(jí)品嘗者對(duì)某一種苦味化學(xué)物質(zhì)更加敏感，像葡萄柚、巧克力和咖啡這樣的食物大量含有這種物質(zhì)。這些食物對(duì)于超級(jí)品嘗者來(lái)說(shuō)很難吃。中等品嘗者不介意吃這幾種苦味的食物。遲鈍品嘗者幾乎察覺(jué)不到任何苦味。

People who are picky8 with food are usually healthier because they can findout which food might be bad for them more easily. This skill was very useful inthe days we used to live in the jungle9， so we would not eat poisoned10 foods.

挑食的人通常更健康，因?yàn)樗麄兏菀装l(fā)現(xiàn)哪些食物可能對(duì)自己有害。這種技能在過(guò)去我們生活在叢林里的時(shí)候非常有用，這樣我們才不會(huì)把有毒的食物吃下去。