Podcasts Themes Parts of the body

Introduction
Download the LearnEnglish Themes podcast. You'll find more information on this page:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-podcasts-themes.htm
This support pack contains the following materials:
The article that you can listen to in the podcast
An optional comprehension activity based on the article
Links to other activities on the LearnEnglish website on this theme (parts of the body).
Read the article
Parts of the Body
by Richard Sidaway
There are 50 trillion cells in the human body, 206 bones, 32 teeth, and more than five and a half litres of
blood. There is also at least one part of the body for every letter of the English alphabet. Here are 25 of
them. Can you guess what they are..?

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J

This is a 10cm long piece of the intestines and nobody can really work out what it's for.
It's probably a leftover from the days when our ancestors were vegetarian, and many
people have it removed when it becomes infected.
A muscular bag which expands to collects urine from the kidneys. It can hold as much
as half a litre before you have to go to the toilet. They used to be kicked around as
footballs and played as musical instruments, although only after the animals had
finished using them
Some people have clefts in theirs, others let hair grow on themYou keep it up to
recover from a misfortune, and use the word twice to toast someone.
The little depression which appears each side of your mouth when you smile is, like
the ability to make a u-shape with your tongue, genetic. You've either got it, or you
haven't
That most perfect of organs, the biologist's best argument for natural selection, the
window to the soul. In sleep, it is covered by a lid. Close one and you wink, close two
and you blink. The third is a symbol of enlightenment.
People paint the nails to make themselves more attractive and put rings on them to
signify alliance. They help us read if we cannot see, and help us speak when we
cannot hear. They wrote these words
I've always thought that this sounds like the name of a distinguished Roman Emperor,
but it is in fact the most powerful muscle in the human body. There are two of them
and chances are you're probably sitting on them right now.
The size of a fist, it beats 70 times a minute without stopping for more than 60 years.
So much more than just a pump for the blood, it symbolizes love and the centre of our
being. It can be followed, broken, even worn on your sleeve!
It opens and closes in reaction to light and gives colour to the eye. It is now scanned to
check people's identity. The word comes from the woman in Greek mythology who
personified the rainbow.
The bone that opens and closes the mouth and holds your teeth. It drops if you are
shocked or surprised. Snakes can unlock theirs if they're having a particularly big lunch.
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Podcasts Themes Parts of the body

K
L
M
N
O
P
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

Bend it and you get shorter, get down on it and you show respect. Footballers and skiers
put it under great stress. Children and ventriloquists' dummies tend to use it as a seat. It
should jerk if you hit it with a small hammer.
Some people fill theirs with smoke, although they are supposed to be used for getting
oxygen to the blood and removing carbon dioxide. The right one is bigger than the left
one. They have enough airways to cover a tennis court.
There are 650 of these and we move when they get shorter. They often work in pairs.
Some you can't control at all. One you can, supposedly, is the tongue. It takes 17 of them
to make a smile.
The 'wires' which pass messages to and from the brain to all parts of the body by using
electrical pulses and chemical changes. If the blood to them gets cut off, they get irritated
and the result is 'pins and needles'. There are over 70km of them in the skin alone.
About the size of a nut, there are two of these organs which produce an unfertilised
human egg every month or so for about thirty years. They also release the hormones
which change girls into women.
This is the part of the body that can be moved sensually while dancing and led to the
invention of Hawaiian grass skirts, rock'n'roll and the hula-hoop. It is larger in women for
the purposes of childbirth only because humans insist on having such big heads.
Twelve pairs in both men and women form a cage to protect various vital organs inside.
Some of them 'float' because they don't meet in the middle. If you crack one, you just
have to wait until it heals.
This is our surface covering. It takes a month for each new cell to move through the three
layers to the top, after which it drops off. You lose about 50 kilos of it by the time you are
70. It comes in a variety of colours to protect us from the sun, and gets more wrinkled as
we get older.
60,000 litres of water pass down it in the average lifetime and sometimes you get a frog
in it. It contains one pipe for food and one for air. Pressure on the outside can lead to
strangulation, a blockage inside can cause suffocation.
The thing that hangs down at the back of your mouth. This is what you see when you
yawn, and can sometimes cause people to snore when they are asleep.
This makes your blood look blue. Medical professionals use them if they need to extract
a specimen for testing. They can become inflamed or varicose if you spend too much
time in one position.
A joint that links fifteen separate bones. It is used to hang an accessory for telling the
time, or one to persuade you to accompany the police to the station.
A long continuous piece of DNA, containing around 1,000 genes, this is one of the 23
pairs that are found in human cells. Women have two of them, men one.
A long continuous piece of DNA, containing between 70 and 300 genes. Its sequence
has now been mapped by the Human Genome Project. It is found only inside the cells of
the male of the species.
If you've never heard of this, then you're probably not the only one. Nor had I until I found
out it's another name for the cheekbone.

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Podcasts Themes Parts of the body

After reading
Exercise 1
In the first table are the letters of the alphabet. In the second table are the parts of the body described in
the text above, with the first letter missing from each. Can you match the rest of the word to the first letter
in each case?

elvis

aw

hroat

ung

inger

nee

ein

ladder

kin

ib

uscle

ppendix

vula

ye

ris

ygoma

erves

chromosome

hin

chromosome

luteus maximus

rist

Imple

eart

vary

More activities on this topic

You'll find links to all the following activities connected to the theme of parts of the body at:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-central-themes-body-parts.htm
Word game: Anatomy. Match the names of parts of the eye, face and rest of the body to pictures
of these.
Story: Mr Smith's New Nose. It is the 22nd century and the world is very different. With new
technologies, people can have the bodies that they want.
Science: cubed. Artificial breathing: A prosthetic lung mimicking our natural lungs could save
lives.
Science: cubed. Cell printout: Creating viable cell structures from living tissue.
Science: cubed. Heart of hope: Growing replacement heart valve tissue from stem cells gives
hope to heart patients.
Science: cubed. Mind reader: brain scanning technique maps brain signals to predict our
intentions.
Science: cubed. Nose for trouble: New electronic nose sniffs out more smells than ever.
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The United Kingdoms international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.

Podcasts Themes Parts of the body

Science: cubed. Plastic blood: Providing a possible solution to the global problem of blood
shortages.
Science: cubed. Rhythm of life: Measuring the 'heartbeat' of living cells offers a safer approach to
drug testing.
Trivia: Everything you (n)ever wanted to know about parts of the body.
There is also a parts of the body-related cartoon and some carefully selected external links.
Answers to comprehension activity:

Ankle
Bladder
Chin
Dimple
Eye

Finger
Gluteus maximus
Heart
Iris
Jaw

Knee
Lung
Muscle
Nerves
Ovary

Pelvis
Rib
Skin
Throat
Uvula

Vein
Wrist
Xchromosome
Ychromosome
Zygoma

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The United Kingdoms international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.