第二步：精读重点段落

（Tips: 双击文中单词可以查释义并加入你的生词本哦）

第04段
The shop was barely distinguishable from the outside. Its interior was unadorned and functional – a handful of men sat behind a counter, waiting on customers. But a closer look revealed much more: carved wooden shelving, a still-ticking vintage clock and a small sign bearing the year of the shop’s inauguration ‒ 1816.

• Be distinguishable from 不同
• A handful of 一小部分
• Wait on 服侍／焦急等待

第11段
The oil emitted a rich, warm and woody fragrance. After numerous years in Delhi, I have many times experienced the juicy scent of the first rains hitting the parched summer earth, though I probably would not recognize it in attar form. Gundhi notes that timing is key: people like to wear the aroma in the height of summer, as it carries a visceral olfactory reminder of the monsoon, bringing a sense of relief.

• Wear the aroma 擦香水
• In the height of summer 盛夏
• Carry a reminder of 唤起记忆
• Bring a sense of relief 令人放松

第13段
So how exactly is it made? As I inhaled the earthy aroma, I pictured workers waiting for the first raindrops, then scooping up huge mounds of damp red soil and heaping them in wide copper bowls for distillation. Turns out I wasn’t too far off.

• Picture sb. doing sth. 想象某人做某事的画面
• Scoop up 掘取
• Turn out 结果是
• Far off 遥远的

（Tips: 双击文中单词可以查释义并加入你的生词本哦）

The Perfume that Harnesses the Monsoon

[1] Years ago, an Indian acquaintance told me of a particularly special perfume, one that is a distillation of the first rains of the monsoon. I’d long wanted to find it ­– but with the modern proliferation of synthetic-based scents, traditional attars, or oil-based perfumes, are increasingly hard to source. Gulab Singh Johrimal in Old Delhi, I was told, is likely to have it.

• Harness vt. 治理／利用
• Acquaintance vt. 包围／环绕
• Distillation n. 蒸馏／精华
• Proliferation n. 增殖
• Synthetic adj. 综合的／n. 合成物
• Attar n. 香精油

[2] Gulab Singh Johrimal has been dispensing attars for more than 200 years. Soon after rolling up the shutters in the morning, the perfumery attracts a steady stream of visitors of all stripes, from well-dressed women with cut-glass accents to teenage suitors buying a scent for their paramour. All know Gulab Singh Johrimal as the house of sublime scents.

• Dispense vt. vi. 分配
• Stripe n. 条纹／种类
• Paramour n. 情人
• Sublime adj. 超群的

[3] When I arrived at Gulab Singh Johrimal at 10 am, the street was teeming with cars, buses and rickshaws, humans, horses and the occasional goat also trying to carve out space. 

[4] The shop was barely distinguishable from the outside. Its interior was unadorned and functional – a handful of men sat behind a counter, waiting on customers. But a closer look revealed much more: carved wooden shelving, a still-ticking vintage clock and a small sign bearing the year of the shop’s inauguration ‒ 1816.

• Teem with 充满
• Rickshaw n. 黄包车
• Distinguishable adj. 可辨识的
• Interior n. 本质／adj. 内部的
• Unadorned adj. 未装饰的
• inauguration n. 开创

[5] The shop is currently run by Praful Gundhi, along with his brothers, father and uncle. “Me and my brothers are seventh generation in this shop,” Gundhi told me proudly, adding that a nephew has recently joined the business, ushering in the eighth generation.

• Usher vt. 引导

[6] I sat at the counter while Gundhi brought out perfume after perfume, all of them distillations of flowers: mogra (an Indian variety of jasmine), lotus, frangipani and khus, or vetiver root. The most precious of all is the pure rose oil, which costs more than 33,000 rupees for 10ml. Its smell is subtle, yet ambrosial.

• Jasmine n. 茉莉
• Lotus n. 莲花
• Frangipani n. 鸡蛋花
• Khus n. 岩兰草
• Vetiver n. 香根草
• Subtle adj. 精细的／微妙的
• Ambrosial adj. 芬香的

[7] “We sell mostly Indian perfumes, which are made by distilling flowers the traditional way,” Gundhi said, as he unscrewed the lid of yet another bottle and proffered it towards me.

• Unscrew vt. 旋松
• Proffer vt. n. 提供

[8] He explained that steam distillation, an ancient process dating back thousands of years, was most likely revived in India by the Mughal rulers who came from Central Asia in the Middle Ages. The process involves suspending flowers and other objects over boiling water in a sealed container. The essential oil contained in the steam is then extracted.

• Revive vi. vt. 复兴／苏醒
• Extract vt. 提取／n. 榨出物

[9] I smelled my way through a sampler box, dabbing the oil into my skin to release the scent. Kewra (pandanus), which has a nutty aroma with hints of saffron, comes from the eastern state of Orissa, while sweet and heady jasmine comes from Coimbatore in the south.

• Dab n. v. 轻拍
• Pandanus n. 露兜树
• Nutty adj. 多坚果的／古怪的
• Aroma n. 芳香
• Saffron n. 藏红花
• Orissa n. 奥里萨邦（印度邦名）
• Coimbatore n. 哥印拜陀市（印度南部城市）

[10] Finally we reached the one I’d come for: attar mitti, or gill (mitti means ‘earth’, while gill means ‘wet’, so the words are used interchangeably when referring to the perfume). Grinning, Gundhi rubbed a drop on my hand, watching my reaction closely. 

[11] The oil emitted a rich, warm and woody fragrance. After numerous years in Delhi, I have many times experienced the juicy scent of the first rains hitting the parched summer earth, though I probably would not recognize it in attar form. Gundhi notes that timing is key: people like to wear the aroma in the height of summer, as it carries a visceral olfactory reminder of the monsoon, bringing a sense of relief.

• Emit vt. 放射／发行
• Fragrance n. 香味
• Parch vt. vi. 烘烤
• Visceral adj. 内脏的／出于本能的／发自肺腑的
• Olfactory adj. 嗅觉的

[12] “Right now it’s spring, so the smell doesn’t have much impact,” Gundhi said. “But as it gets hotter, people want to wear this more as they wait for the monsoon. They appreciate it much more then.”

[13] So how exactly is it made? As I inhaled the earthy aroma, I pictured workers waiting for the first raindrops, then scooping up huge mounds of damp red soil and heaping them in wide copper bowls for distillation. Turns out I wasn’t too far off.

• Inhale vt. vi. 吸气
• Earthy adj. 土的／朴实的／粗俗的
• Scoop vt. 掘／搜集／n. 铲子
• Mound n. 高地／坟堆／vt. 堆起
• Damp vt. 使潮湿／使沮丧／adj. 潮湿的
• Heap vt. 堆积

[14] “To recreate the smell, we get lots of broken earthenware in big copper vessels, put water in that and heat it up,” Gundhi explained.
The steam from the vessel is passed over sandalwood oil; the oil captures the scent from the steam, and the water is separated out. “When you smell this perfume, the base note is sandalwood, but the top note is the first rain after summers,” he continued. “It’s the smell of the monsoon.”

• Recreate vi. vt. 消遣
• Earthenware n. 陶器
• Vessel n. 船舰／容器
• Sandalwood n. 檀香

[15] Just then, a genteel couple entered the shop. “Do you have the oil of raat ki rani?” the woman asked, referring to a variety of night-blooming jasmine.
 “No ma’am, but we do have tuberose, another flower of the night,” Gundhi replied. He shuffled through his stocks and emerged with an antique cut-glass jug.

• Genteel adj. 有教养的／上流社会的
• Tuberose n. 晚香玉
• Jug n. 水壶／vt. 放入壶中

[16] The woman looked at her hands, searching for a clean spot. “I’ve tried so many flower oils, the bees are going to chase me down the street!” she joked. 
She then asked for mitti. “I teach yoga and meditation in Germany for part of the year, and I tell Europeans that we have a perfume based on mud, and they just don’t believe me,” she said.

• Mitti n. 印度产可用于面膜等护肤品的“漂白土”

[17] We both bought a bottle and exited the shop. Already, the air was growing warmer with each passing day. At the very height of the searing North Indian summer, I plan to dab my mitti attar on my wrist, take a sniff and feel relief.

• Sear vt. vi. 烤焦／adj. 枯萎的
• Wrist n. 手腕
• Sniff vi. vt. n. 闻