21. At night, you fall asleep while listening to beautiful music. In the morning, you are woken up by the singing of birds outside. You can enjoy all of these things because of one important organ — the ears.
You may wonder: how do the ears work? The ear has three different parts: the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear. The outer ear is the part you can see. It collects sound around you. The sound then travels down to the middle ear, the inner ear and then to your brain.
Your ears never stop working, even when you are asleep! Your ears continue hearing sounds, but your brain just ignores (忽略)them. That's why you might sometimes wake up suddenly in the middle of the night —your brain heard something but you don't know what it was since you were asleep.
But ears do more than hear. They help you keep your balance, too. In the inner ear, there are organs that are filled with liquid (液体) covered in small hairs. When you move your head, the liquid and hairs move, too. They send messages to your brain about the position of your head.
More surprisingly, ears even help with tasting food. Of course, you don't actually taste food with your ears. But there are nerves (神经) running through the middle ear that connect the tongue to the brain. If something wrong happens to your ears, you might have a hard time telling different flavors apart according to
People's Daily. The ears are truly important organs with many functions. Everyone should make sure to protect their ears as well as they can.
How do our ears work? |
(1) of the ears | The outer ear: It (2) sound around you. The middle ear: Sound travels (3) it. The inner ear: Sound travels down it and then to your brain. |
Hearing | You hear with your ears. Your ears work while you are sleeping, but your brain pays (4) attention to the sounds. |
(5) balance | There are organs that are (6) of liquid and covered in small hairs. They tell your brain the (7) of your head. |
Tasting food | There are nerves running through the middle ear that (8) the tongue to the brain. If your ears don't work (9) , you might not be able to tell different flavors apart. |
The ears are so important that everyone should make sure to protect them as well as (10) . |