英文短篇故事（纽约）298 That "Old People" Smell

Ross asked, "Do old people smell bad?" Sharon said, "They sure do. It's called 'decay.'" Ross laughed. He said, "No, it isn't. Decay happens to dead things. Old people aren't dead yet. They're still alive." Sharon said, "Okay, how about 'ripe' instead of 'decay'? Whatever you call it, I don't like to be near it." Ross said, "Well, a new study just came out. It says that old people don't smell bad at all. Researchers had old people sleep in T-shirts. They had middle-aged people sleep in T-shirts. They had teenagers sleep in T-shirts. Each person slept in the same T-shirt for five nights straight. Then the researchers collected all the T-shirts. They didn't wash them. They asked volunteers to smell the T-shirts. The volunteers said that the old people's T-shirts smelled the best. They said that their T-shirts actually smelled pleasant." Sharon said, "Pleasant?! How old were the volunteers?"