44. The digestion

The process of digestion begins when food is taken into the mouth. Chewing ^ еа^ the food into smaller pieces, thereby exposing more surfaces to the saliva. Saliva moistens the food, so facilitating swallowing, and it contains the enzyme which begins the conversion of carbohydrates into simple sugars.

The major processes of digestion do not occur until the food passes down through the esophagus into the stomach. The stomach has both a chemical and a physical function. The walls of the stomach, which are protected by a layer of mucus, secrete gastric juices composed of several enzymes and hydrochloric acid. The most powerful enzyme is pepsin, which begins the process of converting proteins into amino acids. In addition, waves of contraction and relaxation, known as peristalsis, move the walls of the stomach. They turn the food particles into a'semi–solid mass known as chyme.

From the stomach, the chyme passes into the small intestine through the pyloric sphincter. Proteins have not been completely broken down, carbohydrates are still being converted into simple sugars, and fats remain in large globules. In the small intestine the process of digestion is completed by the action of the bile, which is secreted by the liver and released by the gallbladder, and by the action of various enzymes which are secreted by the pancreas and walls of the small in testine. Absorption of the products of digestion taken place mainly through the wall of the small intestine.

Digestion

Chewing movements of the teeth, tongue, cheeks, lips and lower jaw break down food, mix it with saliva and roll it into a moist, soft mass called a bolus, suitable for swallowing.

Having been rendered suitable for swallowing the food is pushed back into the pharynx by the tongue, and enters the esopha gus to be transported rapidly down the neck and thorax, through the diaphragm to the stomach. The mucous membrane of the stomach is equipped with millions of glands secreting mucus, digestive enzymes and hydrochloric acid.

The small intestine is the region within which the process of digestion is completed and its products are absorbed. Although its epithelial lining forms many small glands, they mainly produce mucus. Most of the enzymes present are secreted by the pancreas, whose duct, opens into the duodenum. Bile from the liver also enters the duodenum.

The absorption of the product's of digestion also takes place in the small intestine, although water, salts, and glucose are ab sorbed from the stomach and the large intestine.

The large intestine is chiefly concerned with the preparation, storage and evacuation of undigestible and unab–sorbable food residue.

New words

process of digestion – процесс переваривания

dewing – жевание

saliva – слюна

to moisten – увлажнять

enzyme – фермент

carbohydrates – углеводы

stomach – живот

tongue – язык

hydrochloric acid – соляная кислота absorption – поглощение

45. The digestive system: the function

The digestive system, or gastrointestinal tract, begins with the mouth, where food enters the body, and ends with the anus, where solid waste material leaves the body. The primary function of the organs of the digestive system are threefold.

First, complex food material which is taken into the mouth must be digested mechanically and chemically, as it travels through, the gastrointestinal tract.

Second, the digested food must be absorbed by passage through the walls of the small intestine into the blood stream so that the valuable energy–carrying nutrients can travel to all cells of the body.

The third function of the gastrointestinal tract is to eliminate the solid waste materials which are unable to be absorbed by the small intestine.

In the man the food in the mouth is masticated, that is to say it is bitten and broken up by the teeth and rolled into the bolus by the tongue.

The act of swallowing is divided into three stages.

The first stage is under voluntary control. The food which has been transformed into a soft, mass by the act of mastication is brought into position upon the root of the tongue, and by the action of the lingual muscles is rolled backwards towards the base of the tongue.

The second stage is brief and is occupied in guiding the food through the pharynx and past the openings that lead from it. The muscular movements during this stage are purely reflex in nature. The third stage involves the passage of the food down the eso phagus. The food is seized by peristaltic wave which, traveling along the esophagus, carries the material before it into the stomach. The cardiac sphincter which guards the lower end of the esophagus and which at other times is kept tonically closed re laxes upon the ap proach of the bolus which is then swept into the stomach by the wave of constriction which follows.

Peristalsis is a type of muscular contraction characteristic of the gut and consists in waves of contraction, these running along the muscles, both circular and longitudinal, towards the anus.

If the food is fluid it enters the stomach six seconds after the beginning of the act, but If It is solid it takes much long er, up to fifteen minutes, to pass down the esophagus.

In the stomach the food is thoroughly mixed by the series of contractions, three or four a minute, the contraction waves pass ing from the middle of the stomach to the pylorus. These tend to drive the food in the same direction, but the pylorus being closed, there is axial reflex, owing to which the food is well mixed. After a time – a bout a minute when water has been swallowed – the pylorus relaxes at each wave, allowing some of the stomach contents to enter the duodenum. Fat stays in the stomach longer than carbo hydrate, but all food leaves generally in three or four hours. In the small intestine the food continues to be moved by peristalsis, the latter controlled by the deep nerve plexus. The small intestine undergoes segmentation movements, the food contents being thoroughly mired The wall becomes constricted into a number of segments and then about five seconds later the constrictions disappear, there being another set exactly out of phase with the first. The large intestine undergoes infrequent powerful contractions, food having entered it. From the large intestine the food enters the rectum.

New words

voluntary control – добровольный контроль

soft – мягкий

mastication – перетирание

position – положение

root – корень