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Circulatory System
The Human Body

Your Blood's Other Job

Your Blood's Other Job
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 4 to 6
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   5.21

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    immunity, image, invaders, teens, booster, polio, shots, smallpox, vaccination, works, defend, attack, army, microscope, certain, exact
     content words:    Bruce Wetzel, Harry Schaefer, National Cancer Institute

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Your Blood's Other Job
By Cindy Grigg 		  
1     Caption: This is a scanning electron microscope image from normal circulating human blood. One can see red blood cells, several white blood cells, and many small disc-shaped platelets. Picture by Bruce Wetzel (photographer) and Harry Schaefer (photographer) for the National Cancer Institute.
 
2     You already know that your blood takes nutrients and oxygen to all your body's cells. That is the job of the red blood cells. But did you know that your blood has another job? Blood also fights off disease germs.
 
3     The blood's white blood cells attack germs that get inside your body. White blood cells are like your body's army. They fight invaders that do not belong inside you. White blood cells surround the germs and swallow them.
 
4     Your blood also has antibodies. White blood cells attack germs. Antibodies are chemicals that join in the fight. There are exact antibodies that fight exact germs. Antibodies stay in your blood, sometimes forever. The white cells and the antibodies are part of your body's immune system.

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