The Human Body

A Science A–Z Life Series

Word Count: 958

The Human
Body

By Kira Freed

www.sciencea-z.com
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 KEY ELEMENTS USED IN THIS BOOK
The Big Idea: Humans have a common bond with all other life on Earth.

The Human
All living things are made up of key parts that help them meet their
needs. These parts must work together to keep an organism healthy.
An understanding of how our bodies work can raise our awareness
of our own health, leading us toward safe and healthy practices.
In this way, we can protect our most important asset—our body.

Body Key words: arteries, bladder, blood, bloodstream, body, bone, bone marrow,
brain, brain stem, carbon dioxide, cardiac muscle, cells, cerebellum, cerebrum,
circulatory system, digestive system, excretory system, healthy, heart, human,
kidneys, large intestine, liver, lungs, muscles, muscular system, nerves, nervous
system, organs, oxygen, pelvis, pulse, respiratory system, ribs, skeletal muscles,
skeletal system, skull, small intestine, smooth muscle, spine, stomach, sweat,
system, tissue, veins

Key comprehension skills: Classify information

Other suitable comprehension skills: Compare and contrast; cause and effect;
main idea and details; identify facts; elements of a genre; interpret graphs,
charts, and diagrams

Key reading strategy: Summarize

Other suitable reading strategies: Ask and answer questions; connect to prior
knowledge; visualize; using a table of contents and headings; using a glossary
and bold terms

Photo Credits: Front cover, page 20 (left): © Royalty-free/Mandy Godbehear/iStockphoto; title

page: © Royalty-free/Elena Elisseeva/iStockphoto; page 4: © Royalty-free/David Stoddard/
iStockphoto; page 5 (left): © Royalty-free/Michael DeLeon/iStockphoto; page 5 (right): © Royalty-
free/Jacek Chabraszewski/iStockphoto; page 7: © Royalty-free/Dorling Kindersley/Getty Images;
page 9 (left): © Royalty-free/Jiang Dao Hua/iStockphoto; page 9 (right): © Royalty-free/Douglas
Allen/iStockphoto; page 11: © Royalty-free/David Joyner/iStockphoto; page 13: © Royalty-free/
Sebastian Kaulitzki/iStockphoto; page 15 (left): © Royalty-free/Russell Shively/iStockphoto; page
15 (right): © Royalty-free/Matthew Cole/iStockphoto; page 17 (fruit): © Royalty-free/Photos.com;
page 17 (steak): © Royalty-free/Paul Johnson/iStockphoto; page 19 (left): © Royalty-free/Anna
Ziska/iStockphoto; page 19 (right): © Royalty-free/Frances Twitty/iStockphoto; page 20 (right):
© Royalty-free/Zeljko Santrac/iStockphoto.

Illustrations: Back cover, page 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19: Cende Hill

By Kira Freed

The Human Body

© Learning A–Z, Inc.
Written by Kira Freed
www.sciencea-z.com
All rights reserved.

www.sciencea-z.com
 Table of Contents Introduction

Introduction ...................................... 4 Your body has many systems that

work together to keep you alive.
The Skeletal System ......................... 6
The systems are
The Muscular System ...................... 8 working all the time.
They all need to stay
The Nervous System ...................... 10 healthy to do their jobs.

The Respiratory System ................ 12

The Circulatory System ................. 14

The Digestive System .................... 16

The Excretory System .................... 18

See what you know before you read this book.
What do you know about each of these body
Conclusion ...................................... 20 systems?
• skeletal system • digestive system
Glossary ........................................... 21 • muscular system • excretory system
• nervous system • reproductive system
• respiratory system • endocrine system
Index ................................................ 24 • circulatory system • immune system

3 4
 The Skeletal System

The bones of your skeletal system

support the rest of your body.
Bones also protect your organs
and help you move. The Skeletal System
Your body knows how to do an amazing number of jobs.
Your spine, the skull

Every minute of your life, your

main support, has spine
ribs
heart pumps blood. Messages move
twenty-six bones.
to and from your brain. Your lungs
Your skull protects
carry oxygen to cells. Your body
your brain from
kills bad germs and gets rid of
getting hurt. Your
waste products. It also does many
ribs protect your
more jobs—even while you sleep!
heart and lungs.
pelvis
In this book, you will learn about Your pelvis helps
seven important body systems. As to protect the
you read, think about all the jobs organs in your belly.
each body system does to keep you
alive and healthy.
5 6
 incus
The Muscular System
malleus

Can you guess where the The muscular system works with
smallest bones in your body
are? They’re in your middle the skeletal system so you can
ears! Three tiny bones carry stapes
sounds from your eardrums
move. Your muscles can contract
to your inner ears.
(become shorter and tighter)
or relax (become
Long, strong bones support your The Muscular System
longer and looser).
arms and legs. Your hands, wrists,
feet, and ankles have many small Your body has
bones. Each of the 206 bones in three kinds of
your body has a special job. muscles. Skeletal
muscles connect
Did you realize your bones are
to bones. When
alive? Bones are made of living
you run, smile,
cells. This is why bones grow.
or pick up a Skeletal
Bone marrow in Muscles
pencil, your
the middle of
skeletal muscles
bones makes
are working.
new blood cells.

7 8
 The Nervous System
Your body has more than
650 muscles! Almost half Your brain is in charge of your
your weight is muscles.
nervous system. It controls
everything you do, from speaking
and moving to thinking and feeling.
To do its jobs, your brain uses
nerves to reach
The Nervous System
the different parts
brain
of your body.
spinal
The hollow parts of your body are cord
Electrical signals
made of smooth muscle tissue.
move very
Smooth muscle tissue moves food,
quickly along
blood, and other things through nerves
the nerves.
your body. Cardiac Muscle
These signals
Cardiac muscle is found carry messages
only in your heart. This between your
strong muscle works every brain and
moment of your life. body parts.
9 10
 The Respiratory System
Signals in your nervous
system can move more Your respiratory system is in charge
than 290 kilometers
(180 mi.) per hour. of your breathing. When you
That’s more than twice
as fast as cars move on breathe in, you take in oxygen. Your
a freeway! That’s why
you notice it so soon if respiratory system carries the oxygen
you hurt your toe.
to your blood. Then
The Respiratory
System your blood carries
This drawing shows the three
the oxygen to your
important parts of the brain. Each nose
mouth
cells. Cells need
part has a special job that helps you trachea

lungs this oxygen to

live, think, feel, and do other things. bronchi
make energy for
Parts of the Brain
diaphragm your body.

cerebrum When cells make

Thinking, feeling,
sight, and hearing
happen here.
cerebellum
This part of the brain
controls muscles so
you can walk smoothly.
brain stem
This part of the brain
controls breathing, pumping
blood, and other things.
11
energy, they also
make water and
carbon dioxide.
These two things
are waste products.
12
 The Circulatory System
All your cells need oxygen to Your heart is in charge of your
stay alive. They can only live
for a few minutes without it. circulatory system. Your heart
Cells need oxygen to break
down the food you eat and pumps blood to every cell in your
turn it into energy.
body. First, the heart pumps blood
Air enters your body through your to your lungs to
nose and mouth. It moves down The Circulatory
System
pick up oxygen.
your windpipe into your chest. Then, the heart
There it splits into two branches veins pumps this blood
heart
that connect to your lungs. to all your cells.

In your lungs, oxygen enters your Blood moves away

bloodstream. Then, red blood cells from your heart
carry the oxygen to all the cells of through arteries.
your body. Your blood also carries The blood in
unneeded carbon dioxide back arteries arteries is bright
from your cells to your lungs. red because it
When you breathe out, the waste carries oxygen.
products go into the air.
13 14
Next, your blood gives its oxygen
to cells. Then, it picks up carbon
dioxide and other waste products
from the cells. The blood moves
back to the heart through your
veins. Blood in veins is dark in color
because it does not carry oxygen.
If you put your hand over your
The Digestive System
Your digestive system breaks down
food. Then, the cells of your body
can use it to make energy.
Food enters your body through your
mouth. After you chew the food,
you swallow it.
The Digestive System

heart, you can feel your heartbeat. mouth Next, the food
You can feel the same beat as blood esophagus moves down a
moves through arteries close to your stomach long tube to your
skin. This beat is your pulse. pancreas stomach. Your
stomach muscles
small
Here are two intestine large break the food
intestine
easy places into small pieces.
to feel your pulse:
• on either side of Juices in your
your neck under
your jaw stomach help
• on the inside of
either wrist break it down, too.

15 16
 The Excretory System

Different foods take Your body makes many things it

different amounts of
time to move through doesn’t need as you breathe air
your digestive system.
Fruits and vegetables
and digest foods and drinks. Your
take less than twelve excretory system gets rid of these
hours. Meat is harder to
digest, so a steak can take two or three days. waste products. The Excretory
System

Next, the food moves to your small You know that your
intestine. Other juices help break lungs get rid of carbon
down the food even more. The dioxide. But other
walls of the small intestine soak organs remove waste
up nutrients from the food. They too. Blood passes liver

enter your bloodstream. Then they through your kidneys

bladder
move to your cells to feed them. kidneys. Then
waste goes to
Any food that was not used moves
your bladder.
on to your large intestine. You don’t
It leaves your
need it. So later, it leaves your body.
body as urine.

17 18
 Conclusion

You have two kidneys, but you can live with just You have just read about the main
one. People who have had one kidney removed
can live a long, healthy life. The kidney that stays jobs of some of your body systems.
grows bigger. It does the work of two kidneys.
Each system has many more jobs,
too. All your body systems work
Another organ that removes waste
all the time to keep you healthy.
is your liver. It helps turn poisons
into a liquid that will not harm you. You can do things to take care of
all your body systems. You can
Your skin is part of your excretory
eat healthy food and get enough
system, too. When you sweat, your
exercise and sleep. Take good care
body gets rid of water, heat, and
of your body. Then it will take
waste products.
good care of you!

skin
sweat

19 20
 Glossary
arteries blood vessels that move
oxygen-rich blood away
from the heart toward
the body’s cells (p. 14)
bone spongy material that
marrow produces blood cells and
is found in the center of
bones (p. 7)
brain the control center of the
nervous system (p. 5)
cardiac the type of muscle found in
muscle the heart (p. 9)
heart the organ that pumps blood
throughout the body (p. 5)
kidneys a pair of excretory organs
that filter waste products
from blood (p. 18)
21
large the thick, lower end of the
intestine digestive system in which
water is removed from
digested food (p. 17)
liver a large excretory organ that
filters blood and helps with
digestion (p. 19)
lungs two spongy organs that
bring oxygen to the blood
and remove carbon dioxide
from the blood (p. 5)
muscles body tissues that let the
body move by contracting
and relaxing (p. 8)
nerves thin fibers that carry signals
between the brain and other
parts of the body (p. 10)
skeletal strong muscles that connect
muscles to bones and allow the body
to move (p. 8)
22
small the thin, coiled part of the Index
intestine digestive system in which bloodstream 13, 17
nutrients are removed
bones 6–8
from food and put into
the bloodstream (p. 17) carbon dioxide 12–13, 15
cells 5, 7, 12–17
smooth muscle that moves
muscle substances without a food 9, 13, 16–17, 20
person’s control and is nutrients 17
found in many internal
oxygen 5, 12–15
organs (p. 9)
pulse 15
spine a column of bones that
skin 15, 19
provides the main support
for the body; the backbone sleep 5, 20
(p. 6)

stomach the organ where food

is mixed and partially
digested (p. 16)

veins blood vessels that carry

blood from the body’s cells
toward the heart (p. 15)

23 24