4. Answer the question to the text:

1. What sense organs do people use for taste and smell?

2. What are the bumps on the tongue called?

3. What is located inside the bumps of your tongue?

4. How do we taste things?

5. Where are sweet things tasted?

6. What is odor?

7. Why do people sniff?

8. How do we smell?

9. Why is it important to be able to taste and smell things?

Lesson 3

THE SENSE OF SIGHT

The eye is the sense organ of sight. You see with your eyes. Your eyes work like a very good camera. They can take pictures that are still or moving, in color or in black and white, and from distance or from close up. Of course your eyes are better than camera.

The eye is made up of different parts: the iris, pupil, eyelid and retina. The picture below shows the different parts of an eye.

The iris is a muscle. It is a part of an eye that lets in the right amount of light. The big, colored circle in the centre of the eye is the iris. Pigment gives the iris its color. The color of the iris is different in different people. Look at your classmates’ eyes. What color iris do you see?

In the centre of the iris there is a hole that lets in the light. This hole is the pupil. The iris muscle can change or adjust the size of the pupil. The pupil will enlarge if the light is dim and get smaller when the light is bright.

The eyelid is another important part of an eye. It has two important functions. The eyelid controls the amount of light that enters the eye. When you want to keep out light, you can lower your eyelid. Also, raising and lowering the eyelids helps keep the eyes moist.

Another important part of the eye is retina. The retina is the part of an eye that receives the image and focuses the light. A picture forms on the retina in the back of the eye. The image on the retina is upside down. How does the image get right side up, so you see normally?

Light enters through the pupil in the eye and is received by the nerves in the retina. When the nerves in the retina receive the light, they send a “picture massage” to the brain. This picture massage is upside down. The brain changes the message into right-side-up picture. The brain performs a very important function in the sense of sight.

Sometimes people need glasses because they cannot focus the light properly. The picture is not clear. Three of the most common eye problems are being nearsighted, farsighted, or having astigmatism. If you are nearsighted, you can see things only if they are very near. If you are farsighted, you can see things only if they are far away. If you have astigmatism, things look blurry where they are near or far. All these three problems can be corrected with eyeglasses or contact lenses. Eyeglasses or contact lenses help focus the light properly so that you can see clearly all the time.

Vocabulary and comprehension check

1. Give English equivalents of the following words:

однокласники; збільшуватись (в розмірі): входити, поступати; повіка, виконувати, короткозорий, контактні лінзи, м’язи радужки, нерв, далекозорий.