外国人最想和你聊的时事话题：香水

　What is perfume　什么是香水
     Perfume is a mixture of fragrant essential oils and aroma compounds, fixatives, and solvents used to give the human body, animals, objects, and living spaces a pleasant scent. The odoriferous compounds that make up a perfume can be manufactured synthetically or extracted from plant or animal sources.
     Perfumes have been known to exist in some of the earliest human civilizations either through ancient texts or from archaeological digs. Modern perfumery began in the late 19th century with the commercial synthesis of aroma compounds such as vanillin or coumarin, which allowed the composition of perfumes with smells previously unattainable solely from natural aromatics alone.
     Since 1945, due to great advances in the technology of perfume creation (i.e., compound design and synthesis) as well as the natural development of styles and tastes； new categories have emerged to describe modern scents:
     ·Bright Floral: combining the traditional Single Floral ＆ Floral Bouquet categories. A good example would be Estée Lauder's Beautiful.
     ·Green: a lighter and more modern interpretation of the Chypre type, with pronounced cut grass, crushed green leaf and cucumber-like scents. Two examples would be Estée Lauder's Aliage or Sisley's Eau de Campagne.
     ·Aquatic, Oceanic, or Ozonic: the newest category in perfume history, appearing in 1991 with Christian Dior's Dune. A very clean, modern smell leading to many of the modern androgynous perfumes. Generally contains calone, a synthetic scent discovered in 1966. Also used to accent floral, oriental, and woody fragrances.
     ·Citrus: An old fragrance family that until recently consisted mainly of "freshening" eau de colognes, due to the low tenacity of citrus scents. Development of newer fragrance compounds has allowed for the creation of primarily citrus fragrances. A good example here would be Brut..
     ·Fruity: featuring the aromas of fruits other than citrus, such as peach, cassis (black currant), mango, passion fruit, and others. A modern example here would be Ginestet Botrytis.
     ·Gourmand: scents with "edible" or "dessert"-like qualities. These often contain notes like vanilla, tonka bean and coumarin, as well as synthetic components designed to resemble food flavors. A sweet example is Thierry Mugler's Angel. A savory example would be Dinner by BoBo, which has cumin and curry hints.
     香水（perfume）是一种混合了香精油(volatile oil)、固定剂(fixer)与酒精的液体，用来让物体（通常是人体部位）拥有持久且悦人的气味。精油取自于花草植物，用蒸馏法(distillation)或脂吸法萃取(extraction)，也可使用带有香味的化学物。固定剂是用来将各种不同的香料(perfume/spice)结合在一起，包括有香脂(balsam)、龙涎香(ambergris)以及麝香猫(musk)与麝鹿身上气腺体的分泌物(secretion)。酒精浓度则取决于是香水、淡香水还是古龙水(cologne)。香水的保存期限通常是五年。