Download Your Lungs- Simple or Simply Amazing

Your
Lungs:
Simple or
Simply
Amazing?
By Erin Horner
Up and down. Up and down. This is what your chest
does every minute of every day. It seems pretty simple,
doesn't it? But hidden under your skin and beneath your rib
cage is a very complex organ that causes the constant rise
and fall of your chest: your lungs. Your lungs are one of the
largest organs in your body. The outside of your lungs look
pink and rubbery. The inside of your lungs look a lot like
sponges.
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Every time you inhale, your chest rises. A breath of air
travels in through your nose or mouth. Then it makes its way
down your trachea or windpipe. Finally it arrives in your
lungs. The air then fills up millions of air sacs. Six hundred
2
million, to be exact! These sacs, or alveoli, let the oxygen
from the air pass into your blood stream. The newly
oxygenated blood travels all the way to your heart. Your
heart then pumps that blood all over your body!
As your blood is pumped through your body, blood cells
make a trade. Oxygen is dropped off. Carbon dioxide, the
waste product, is picked up. Carbon dioxide can't stay in
your blood stream. Your body must get rid of it. So, it's back
to the lungs for a quick trip out of the body. Once the blood
cells have picked up the carbon dioxide, they head back to
the lungs. After entering through the capillaries, the air sacs
fill up with the waste. Finally, you exhale. As your chest
falls, you breathe out the carbon dioxide.
3
This "simple" up and down routine happens all the time.
It happens while you are awake. It happens while you are
asleep. It happens even when you aren't thinking about it.
Your lungs are always working! In reality, there is only one
thing about breathing that is simple. It is quite simply
amazing!
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Copyright © 2013 edHelper
1. 2. What are the sacs in your
lungs called?
What is this passage mainly
about?
Why your body needs
oxygen
Your lungs and their
complex job
The best way to exhale
The simple things your
body can do
3. 4. Which of the following is What does the word inhale
true?
mean?
Your lungs do not have
To breath out
a very important job.
To breathe in
Breathing is very
To put something in a hole
simple.
Hail that falls through the
You only breathe when roof and comes inside
you think about it.
Your lungs contain six
hundred million air sacs.