The Brain

The Brain

The Brain
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 7 to 9
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	7.51

Vocabulary

challenging words:

cerebrum, limbic, pinkish-gray, happening, cranium, cerebellum, billion, cortex, spinal, automatic, reading, skull, finding, cerebral, regulate, cord

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The Brain
By Sharon Fabian

¹     That three-pound pinkish-gray blob in your head may be ugly but it can do a lot of things. Like a computer, it can figure out math problems, and store and organize information. Like a camera, it can turn patterns of light into pictures. It can also regulate body processes, produce emotions, understand and construct language, and order muscles to move.

²     If your nervous system, which includes your brain, is the control center for your body, then your brain is its commander-in-chief.

³     Your brain has three main parts: the large part called the cerebrum, the smaller part in the back called the cerebellum, and the brain stem which attaches the brain to the spinal cord. The large part, the cerebrum, is made up of layers of folds and wrinkles called the cerebral cortex. As the surface of your brain grows, it folds and wrinkles more to fit into its space in your skull. Somewhere between 10 billion and 100 billion nerve cells are at work in your brain. They are powered by the food that you eat and the oxygen that you breathe. In case of a fall, or a blow to the head, your brain is protected by your cranium, also called your skull, and by three protective layers called meninges inside your skull.

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