A Tough Worker
Y
our
heart is really a muscle. It’s located a little to the left of the
middle of your chest, and it’s about the size of your fist. There
are lots of muscles all over your body – in your arms, in your
legs, in your back. But this muscle is special because of what it
does – the heart sends blood around your body. The blood provides
your body with the oxygen and nutrients it needs. It also carries
away the waste that your body has to get rid of.
Your heart reminds a pump or two pumps in one. The right side of your heart receives blood from the body and pumps it to the lungs. The left side of the heart does the exact opposite: it receives blood from the lungs and pumps it out to the body. By the time you’re grown up, your heart will be beating (pumping) about 70 times a minute.
How does the heart beat? Before each beat, your heart fills with blood. Then it contracts to squirt the blood along. When something contracts, it squeezes tighter – try squeezing your hand into a fist. Your heart does this all the time. Every day, an adult heart pumps 2,000 gallons (7,500 liters) of recycled blood by filling and contracting. The heart is a rather tough worker!
Where is your heart located?
Where else can you find muscles in your body besides the heart?
Why do we need a heart?
Which organ(s) directly works with the heart?
Writing options. Try to make a story on the offered topics.
Do you ever read magazines or news articles about health? If yes, what subject(s) do you find the most interesting?
Do you think it is unhealthy to keep a cat in your home or pets are good for a person’s health?
Do you think that the tobacco companies should be held reasonably responsible for a person’s addiction to nicotine?
Do you normally go to one doctor in particular or any available doctor? What is the best way to find a doctor, if you’re new in the area?
Do you enjoy cleaning? Have you ever ended a relationship because your partner had bad hygiene?
In what circumstances should traditional or alternative medicine be used? Are traditional therapies compatible with modern medicine? Why or why not?
HUMOUR TIME
Doctor, Doctor, what can I do about my broken leg? – Limp.
*****
Patient: Doctor, you must help me. I keep losing my temper with people.
Doctor: Tell me about your problem.
Patient: I just did, didn’t I, you stupid idiot!
*****
“Doctor, doctor, every time I drink a cup of coffee I get a sharp pain in my nose.”
“Have you tried taking the spoon out of the cup?”
*****
A doctor and a nurse were called to the scene of an accident.
Doctor: We need to get these people to a hospital now!
Nurse: What is it?
Doctor: It’s a big building with a lot of doctors, but that’s not important now!
*
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“I am sorry, madam, but I shall have to charge you hundred dollars for pulling your boys tooth.” “Hundred dollars! Why, I understood you to say that you charged only twenty dollars for such work!” “Yes,” replied the dentist, “but this youngster yelled so terribly that he scared out four other patients out of the office.”
*****
A patient came to his dentist with problems with his teeth.
Patient: Doctor, I have yellow teeth, what do I do?
Dentist: Wear a brown tie!
*****
Two psychoanalysts are cycling. One of them has a bad fall. Bruises, scratches, broken arm... Another runs up to him and asks in a very sympathetic voice: “How much does it hurt? Would you like to talk about it?”