200906012 -- How Sunburns Work (1)

How Sunburns work

Enjoy the sun this summer

Now that we are getting into the thick of sumertime activities, sunburn is something
that you have to think about. How is is that light can cause such intense pain?

Getting sunburn
The easiest way to get sunburn is to stay inside for a month or two and then spend a day outside. When you go out in the sun, ultraviolet light penetrates into living skin cells, and it starts damaging and killing those cells. The repair process starts when damaged cells release chemicals. The first thing the chemicals do is set off pain signals in your skin's pain sensors. Those same chemicals also tell your body to send in white blood cells to eat all the damaged and dead cells. Your body dilates all the capillaries in the damaged area to increase blood flow. Sunburned skin turn red and hot because of all those dilated capillaries bringing in the white blood cells. And your skin stings because every pain sensor in your sunburned skin is sounding the, "Hey, there is damage here!" alarm.



sunburn n. 曬傷
eg: The easiest way to avoid sunburn is to wear a hat and a long-sleeved shirt.

penetrate v. 穿透
eg: The wind penetrated Ben's jacket as he walked outside in the cold weather.
eg: The bullet almost penetrated his bulletproof jacket(防彈夾克).
eg: Some hackers were trying to penetrate the computer system of the IRS.

penetrate v. 瀰漫/滲透
eg: The aroma(香味) of the lilies(百合花) penetrated the whole house.

set off (phr v)
-> to cause to happen
eg: Tracy burned the meat and accidentally set off the fire alarm.

sting v. 刺痛/使疼痛
sting stung stung
eg: John's eyes stung from some dust that flew into them.
eg: My eyes stung as I was chopping onions.


sting v. 心理上的刺傷
eg: Those harsh(刺耳的) words from the teacher really stung the boy.

get into the thick of something 正激烈的時候/正起勁的時候
-> get into the middle of something
eg: As we were getting into the thick of the tennis match, my son came and interrupted the game.

ultraviolet light 紫外線

dilate v. 擴大/使膨脹
-> to make wider/larger
eg: Your capillaries dilate.
eg: Your body dilate capillaries.

capillary n. 毛細管/毛細血管


//== Grammer on the go ==//

Now that we are getting into the thick of sumertime activities, sunburn is something that you have to think about.
= Because now that we are getting into the thick of sumertime activities, sunburn is something that you have to think about.

now that
= because now/ since

Sunburn is something that you have to think about now that we are getting into the thick of sumertime activities.

eg: Now that the car is here, let's go ahead and put our things in the trunk.
eg: I don't think I'll go watch the movie, now that I know the end of the story.

//== Chat room ==//

capillaries
= blood vessels

vein is a type of blood vessels

vein, capillaries, arteries
vein 靜脈
capillaries 毛細血管
arteries 動脈

arteries 交通幹線
the major arteries(主要幹道) of New Your City