Alex Raynham
The Human Body
THE HUMAN BODY
Most of the time, we don’t even stop to think about our bodies. We talk, work, eat, walk, sleep, and play, and all the time this amazing machine, the human body, does everything we need it to. Nerves, muscles, skin, heart, brain, and hundreds of other parts work together day and night without stopping. New parts are made all the time, and when things go wrong, the body can often repair itself.
And there is no end to the extraordinary stories about the human body – from the blind man who rides a bicycle through the traffic, to the twins who met at the age of thirty-five, to the man who survived twenty-two hours in the snow on Mount Everest. Get ready to be amazed …
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.
Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © Oxford University Press 2014 The moral rights of the author have been asserted First published 2014 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 No unauthorized photocopying All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the ELT Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials contained in any third party website referenced in this work ISBN: 978 0 19 423675 1 A complete recording of The Human Body is available on CD. Pack ISBN: 978 0 19 423667 6 Printed in China Word count (main text): 10,489 For more information on the Oxford Bookworms Library, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Cover image: Alamy Images (Sprinter, artwork/Sciepro/Science Photo Library) Illustrations by: Peter Bull pp. 14, 20, 53 The publishers would like to thank the following for their permission to reproduce photographs:
