Hello lovely students and welcome back to English with Lucy. I've got quite the lesson for you today so we're going to get right into it. Today we're going to get up close and personal with the human body and I mean really personal.
We're tackling a lot, we're going to go into a lot of detail. So buckle up, make sure you are all ears as we explore the amazing machine that is the human body. To assist your learning, I've put together a massive PDF that you can download for free.
It contains all of the vocabulary from today's lesson, plus a little more, along with definitions and a quiz to test your knowledge. If you'd like to download that, all you have to do is click on the link in the description box, enter your name and your email address, then you've joined my PDF club. You'll be signed up. to my mailing list for free and the PDF will arrive directly in your inbox. After that, you will automatically receive my free weekly PDFs alongside my news, course updates and offers.
It's a free service and you can unsubscribe with one click at any time. Okay, let's start at the very top, shall we? The head.
So you might already know about the forehead, right? Forehead. In my accent, modern received pronunciation, we don't pronounce the R sound, R, forehead.
But in some accents, it's actually pronounced forehead, forehead. And what about these? They are the temples, temples.
They're the flat areas on either side of the forehead. That's where your temporal bones are, temporal bones. Then moving down, we have this little flap. Mine's very small. A little flap of cartilage here.
Cartilage is flexible connective tissue. It's at the front of the ear. It's the tragus. Tragus, maybe you know someone who's had it pierced.
And this soft fleshy bit at the bottom of the ear is the earlobe, earlobe, or sometimes just lobe for short. Moving up, we have the crown. at the very top of the head. And covering the whole head, the skin that covers the skull, it's the scalp, scalp, where your hair grows from.
Now, move your fingers to the back of your head. Do you feel a little bump? That's your occipital bone, occipital bone.
The area around it is called the occipital region, and it's where your skull meets your neck. It's a pretty important place, if you ask me. as it protects the brain's visual processing centre. Okay, now it's time to face some face facts. Let's start with the windows of the soul, the eyes. Now the eyes are pretty complex.
The coloured part is called your iris, iris. The black hole in the middle is just like you, it's a pupil, a pupil. A pupil is another word for student, it's also the black hole in your... eye.
Pupil. It gets bigger when there's not much light and it shrinks when there's bright light. When I was at university I used to get rejected from nightclubs because my pupils were always so big. They're very sensitive to light or lack of light. The bouncers thought I had taken an illegal substance but really I was just struggling to see in the dark.
And what about the white part of the eye? I'm going to be honest, I had to look this one up. It's called the sclera.
Sclera. And if you want to remember it, I came up with a way. You can say, isclera than the rest of your eye, okay?
Sclera. Now, let's talk about the flap of skin that's always moving up and down, the eyelid. For some reason, I have crazy control of my eyelids and my eyes in general.
I don't know if you can see this. This is my party trick. Look at my irises. Can anyone else do that?
Yeah, amazing eye control. I guess if this career doesn't work out, I could just go to the circus. Back to eyelids. Eyelids help to keep the eyes moist and protected.
And what about your hairs on your eyelids? They're your eyelashes, your eyelashes. And they act as another line of protection for the eyes.
Just above the eyes, we have the eyebrows. Eyebrows. which also play an important role as they help to keep sweat out of your eyes. What about this little dip in between the eyebrows?
This is called the glabella. glabella, and it's from the Latin word for smooth, which is ironic because this is often where we get frown lines, which are sometimes called elevens. Wrinkle is the more general term for the lines or small folds that appear on your skin as we age or as we express ourselves. Okay, here's a fun one.
You know how some people have the little indentations in their cheeks when they smile? These are called dimples. Dimples, I've always wanted dimples. They're actually caused by a split in the muscle that runs through the cheek.
Not everyone has them, but perhaps that's why so many of us find them so cute. Okay, now for the nose. There are two openings at the bottom called nostrils. Nostrils. The little groove between the nose and the upper lip, that's a philtrum, philtrum.
Below that, just here, is the Cupid's bow. The Cupid's bow and that is the double curve of the upper lip. Speaking of mouths, going inside, we've got the gums that hold the teeth in place.
I don't know why I'm feeling like I have to demonstrate all of this for you. Gums! The roof of the mouth is called the palate and the dangly thing at the back of the throat, I can actually touch that with my tongue, but it weirds me out every time I do it. That's. The uvula.
Uvula. It helps with swallowing and even with making sounds in certain languages. Okay, that was a lot of information about the head and I don't expect you to remember all of it. That's why I've made the PDF for you. Make sure you've downloaded that by clicking on the link in the description box.
It has all of this information neatly organised, lovely visuals, the perfect self-study guide. Are you ready to move on? Let's go to the neck and shoulders. So with the neck, the back of the neck where the hairline ends is called the nape, the nape of the neck.
It's a super sensitive area for many people. I'm extremely ticklish on my neck. The lump at the front of the neck is called the Adam's apple and it's more prominent in some bodies than others. Fun fact, it's not actually an apple. Can you believe it?
It's cartilage that covers the larynx or voice box, which is the top part of the throat that contains the vocal cords. The vocal cords are what you use to speak and sing. Head, shoulders, knees...
Actually, we're just sticking with head and shoulders for now. Do you have a version of head, shoulders, knees and toes in your own language? Does it include the same body parts? I would really like to know.
Please put that in the comments section. Okay, so you've... You've probably heard of the collarbone, but did you know its fancy name is the clavicle? Clavicle, that's a lovely word.
And it's actually one of the most commonly broken bones in the body, ouch. Now, a big muscle runs from the back of the head down the neck and across the shoulders, and that's the trapezius, the trapezius muscle, but most people just call it the traps. And at the back, there are two large flat bones called the shoulder blades, shoulder blades, or scapulae, scapulae, if we're being very fancy. And it's time for another party trick. I have a really weird control over my shoulder bones.
Why am I doing this? I can make them dance. All right, after that, it's time for a quick break. Let's see how much you've learnt so far with a little quiz.
And don't worry, it's just for fun. I will read each question and then the answer. And you'll have three seconds to answer, but feel free to use the pause button if you need more time. All right, number one.
What is the name of the coloured part of the eye? Pupil, iris, or sclera? It is iris. It's your iris. What's this little groove called between your nose and your upper lip?
Is it your philtrum, cupid's bow, or uvula? It is your philtrum. And number three, which of these is not found in the mouth?
We have palate, we have. Gums. And we have nape.
It is... Nape that's on your neck number four. What's another name for your collarbone?
scapula clavicle or larynx Clavicle clavicle such a cute word and five. What's the name of the part that covers the larynx? Is it Adam's apple crown or temple?
You're Adam's apple. How did you do? Make sure you keep a note of your score out of five, as we're going to have another quiz at the end and I want to know your total score out of 10. Okay, let's continue our journey through the human body as we move down to the torso. And this is the body's central part minus the head, arms and legs. Put your hand on the centre of your chest.
Can you feel that long, flat bone? That is your sternum. sternum and it's like a shield for your heart and lungs.
Just below that is an area called the solar plexus. The solar plexus. It's a network of nerves and it's super sensitive.
Okay, now slide your hands down to your sides. These muscles here are called the obliques. Obliques and they're what can help you twist and bend from side to side and right in the centre of the belly. is the navel. The navel, also known as the belly button.
This is where your umbilical cord, umbilical cord, was attached. Did you know that the way your belly button or navel looks is basically just random? It's determined by how your umbilical cord heals after you're born.
It can be an innie or an outie or a in-betweenie as well. Okay, let's not forget the rib cage. People usually have 12 pairs of ribs and they're not just there to protect your organs. The muscles attached to the ribs expand and contract helping us to breathe. The bottom two pairs are called floating ribs.
Floating ribs because they're not attached to your sternum. Okay we'll flip around to the back. We've already gone over the shoulder blades as I'm sure you will never forget the scapulae.
However, running right down the middle of your back is the spine. The spine, or sometimes called your backbone. It's not just one long bone though.
It's usually made up of 33 individual bones called vertebrae. Vertebrae or vertebrae too. Although some of these usually fuse together, leaving more of us with only 24. The spine is divided into different regions. We have the cervical, cervical or cervical spine is in your neck. The thoracic or thoracic spine is in your upper back.
The lumbar spine is in your lower back. And the sacrum or sacrum is at the bottom of your spine. Finally, the coccyx, coccyx, that's a lot of consonant sounds there, coc.
six or tailbone is at the bottom. Another fun fact, we're born with around 300 bones, but as we grow, some of them fuse together. And by the time we're adults, we only have around 206. Okay, next, the reproductive system.
So people generally have either ovaries, which produce eggs and hormones, a uterus, which is where a foetus develops. during pregnancy, fallopian tubes, which eggs pass along from the ovaries to reach the uterus, a cervix, a narrow opening at the lower end of the uterus, a vagina, which is a passage that connects the cervix and the outside of the body, and a vulva, which are the outer parts of the sex organs. So these are typically found in female bodies but... not always, or people tend to have among other things. These body parts typically found in male bodies, but not always.
We have testicles, testicles which produce sperm and testosterone, a scrotum, scrotum, which holds and protects the testicles, and a penis, penis, which is the external male sex organ. Now note, that some people will have both of these, some people will have none of these. It's not a clear divide.
I'm simply happy to equip you. with the vocabulary. Okay, time for arms and hands.
We have the biceps, which are at the top of your upper arm, and they are the muscles that move when you flex. At the back, we have the triceps here, and as we move down further, we have the forearm. Forearm.
At the end of that is the wrist, which is really flexible thanks to the small bones in there, called the carpals. Carpals. Then we've got the hand with the inner flat part called the palm, palm.
We don't tend to pronounce the L there, just palm, palm. The bendy joints on each finger are called knuckles, knuckles. The K is silent. Let's zoom in on the fingers. At the end of each finger, we have a fingertip, fingertip, and they're generally super sensitive, great for touching and feeling things.
The fingernail grows from the nail bed. And around the edges, we have the cuticle keeping the nail in place. Mine are not naturally pink.
I may have had some assistance with these. Okay, let's tackle the legs and feet. At the front of the thigh, the thigh, which is the top part of the leg, just above the knee, there are a group of muscles, a group of four muscles, called the quadriceps.
Quadriceps. Sometimes we shorten it to quads. If we head down further, we find the knee, which is pretty damn complex. Behind the knee, we have the hamstring, and the hamstring is made up of the muscles and tendons, which run along the back of the leg.
Tendons are the tissues that join muscles to bones. We have the kneecap, kneecap, or patella, patella. That's the round bone at the front of your knee.
And did you know that there's also a little fluid-filled sack called a bursa? Bursa that helps your knee move smoothly. You can find bursas next to lots of large joints like the shoulders and the hips. Moving down to the lower leg, we have the calf. The calf at the back.
That's the same as the word we use for a baby cow, a calf. It's the bulgy muscle that helps people stand on tiptoes. At the front, there is the shin. The shin and the bone there is called the tibia.
The tibia, that's the one that's really painful to knock on a coffee table. And the tibia is the second largest bone in your body after your femur. Femur, which is your thigh bone. At the back of the ankle, you have your Achilles tendon.
Achilles tendon and it was named after the Greek hero who is invulnerable everywhere except his heel. It's the strongest tendon in your body but it's also one of the most commonly injured. Now for your feet. The heel is the bone at the back of the foot and it's called the calcaneus.
Calcaneus. It's the largest bone in the foot and it takes a lot of impact when walking or running. The bottom of the foot is called the sole. The sole.
And there's an arch in the middle. that helps with balance. The ball of the foot is that padded round part just behind the toes. It helps distribute weight when standing on tiptoes. And speaking of toes, did you know that the scientific name for the big toe is the hallux?
The hallux. And the rest of them? Well, the smallest one is called the pinky toe. The pinky toe and that's not its scientific name but everyone will know what you mean. Before we wrap up, let's talk about some features of skin and hair.
You've probably heard of pores, the tiny openings typically found here for me. They can sometimes get clogged. But did you know about sebaceous glands? Sebaceous glands. They're the little glands in the skin that produce oil or sebum.
Sebum. And what about the brown spots that some people have on their skin? If it's flat, it's called a freckle. I have one very persistent freckle here.
If it's raised, it's called a mole. A mole. Both are caused by clusters of pigment-producing cells in your skin, which are what give your skin colour.
Some people also have birthmarks. Birthmarks, which are just coloured marks on a person's skin that they've normally had since birth. As for hair, each strand grows from a follicle.
Follicle. Did you know that a cowlick... is a piece of hair that sticks out and grows in a different direction from the rest of your hair.
I have one right here. It will never lie flat. It's caused by a spiral pattern in the growth of hair follicles. You can blame your genes for it or just embrace it.
It's extra volume. All right, we've covered a lot. Let's see how much you remember with one last quiz.
What do we call the bendy parts of the fingers? Are they cuticles, knuckles, or the hallux? They are knuckles.
Okay, the bottom of the foot is called the heel, arch, or sole. It is the sole of your foot. Spelt differently to your. Soul as a person, the sole of your foot, S-O-L-E. Number three, what's the name of the coloured spots some people have on their skin?
We're talking about the flat ones here. We have freckles, follicles, pores. Freckles.
Number four, what is the largest bone in the body? Is it the femur, the tibia? or the calcaneus? It's the femur. And the last one.
What is the scientific name for the big toe? Is it the phalanx, the hallux, or the tibia? It is the hallux. Amazing work. How many did you get out of five?
Put it together with your last score and tell me your score out of 10. in the comment section below. Well, what a journey we've been on today. We've covered so much from the top of your head to the tips of your toes.
But it's important to remember that knowing about these terms isn't just about sounding smart, although that's a really nice bonus. It can be incredibly useful if you need to describe a health issue to a doctor or discuss fitness with a personal trainer or someone in the gym. Plus, it gives you a whole new appreciation for how complex and fascinating our bodies really are.
Don't forget to download that pdf, there's lots more information there and there's a quiz. And until next time, take care of your clavicles, mind your patellas, and I will see you in the next video. Bye!