Text Structure

What makes you sneeze? Sometimes when dirt or dust enters your nose, it tickles your nose and throat. This causes a release of histamines, a type of chemical. The histamines bother special cells in your nose. The cells send signals to your brain, and as a result your brain tells your body to sneeze. Since a sneeze lets out a fast blast of air, it sends the dirt or dust out of your nose. Gesundheit!

You breathe air in through your nose and mouth. What happens next? The air travels to the back of your throat. Then, it enters your windpipe, the tube that leads to your lungs. In the lungs, this tube splits into smaller and smaller tubes, and finally into tiny alveoli. These alveoli are tiny bags that are surrounded by tiny blood vessels. Now the oxygen in the air passes through the walls of the alveoli into the blood. Your heart then pumps the blood throughout your body, getting that oxygen to all your cells.

Baseball and cricket are both popular sports that involve hitting a ball with a bat. However, they use different terms even for similar parts of the game. In cricket, the player who throws the ball first is the bowler. In baseball, on the other hand, that player is called the pitcher. The player behind the batter is the wicket-keeper in cricket. In baseball, this player is called the catcher instead. Players get outs in baseball, while they take wickets in cricket.

You breathe air in through your nose and mouth. What happens next? The air travels to the back of your throat. Then, it enters your windpipe, the tube that leads to your lungs. In the lungs, this tube splits into smaller and smaller tubes, and finally into tiny alveoli. These alveoli are tiny bags that are surrounded by tiny blood vessels. Now the oxygen in the air passes through the walls of the alveoli into the blood. Your heart then pumps the blood throughout your body, getting that oxygen to all your cells.

A tropical rain forest is a particular type of forest. It's a tall, thick jungle located in a hot region with plenty of rain. Rain forests are home to many different life forms. Indeed, as many as thirty million different kinds of plants and animals live in rain forests. Among these are the plants that produce chocolate and rubber. Also, many plants used in medicines grow in rain forests.

In ancient Egypt, when wealthy or important people died, their bodies were turned into mummies. Making a mummy required first removing most of the organs from inside the body. Next, the organs were allowed to dry and were placed into special jars. The body was then covered with salt to dry out further. Finally, it was wrapped with strips of cloth and placed into a special body-shaped box, or sarcophagus. The body was buried with the jars of organs. Ancient Egyptians believed making mummies allowed people to use their bodies in the afterlife, after death.

Experts say that too much television can be bad for you. Watching hours of TV results in too much sitting and not enough exercise. Exercise often makes people healthier. TV also takes away from the time kids might spend reading or doing their homework. This means that they might fall behind in school. Some people don't even get enough sleep because they stay up too late watching TV.

During World War II, the United States needed a way to get messages to soldiers. They wanted a code that the enemy could not understand. One system they used came from the Navajo language. The military asked Navajo soldiers to develop a code based on their language. By remembering a complicated code, the soldiers could send messages that only other U.S. soldiers would understand. Their work helped save lives and win victories.

Millipedes and centipedes are not the same. Yes, they're both long worm-like bugs. They have many legs and bodies with many sections, or segments. But there are important differences between these two creatures. Centipedes have two legs per body segment. Millipedes, instead, have four legs per segment on most of their bodies. Millipedes move slowly, while centipedes run quickly. The millipedes' antennae are shorter than centipedes'. Perhaps most important to remember is that centipedes, unlike millipedes, are predators and can bite!

A geode is a special rock. It's rounded, hollow, and lined with sparkly crystals. If you crack it open, then you'll see crystals of blue, pink, purple, or other colors. Geodes form when a bubble of air is caught in a layer of rock. That could happen when a volcano explodes. Volcanic rock surrounds the hot bubble. Then, rain soaks through into the middle of the bubble. The water contains different minerals. More water brings in more minerals, over millions of years. Different minerals make differently colored crystals inside the geode.

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