Note Book 1

Your Ears

Sounds are everywhere, and you have two cool parts on your body that let you hear them all: your ears!

What Are Ears and What Do They Do?

The ear is made up of three different sections that work together to collect sounds and send them to the brain: the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear.

The Outer Ear: Collecting Sounds

The outer ear is made up of the pinna — also called the auricle (say: OR-ih-kul) — and the ear canal. The pinna is the part of the ear you see on the side of your head. It's made of tough cartilage covered by skin. Its main job is to gather sounds and funnel them to the ear canal, which is the pathway that leads to the middle ear. Glands in the skin lining the ear canal make earwax, which protects the canal by cleaning out dirt and helping to prevent infections.

The Middle Ear: Good Vibrations

The middle ear is an air-filled cavity that turns sound waves into vibrations and delivers them to the inner ear. The middle ear is separated from the outer ear by the eardrum, or tympanic (say: tim-PAN-ik) membrane, a thin piece of tissue stretched tight across the ear canal. Sounds hit the eardrum, making it move.

This movement leads to vibrations of three very small bones in the middle ear known as the ossicles (say: AH-sih-kuls). The ossicles are:

the malleus (say: MAH-lee-us) ("hammer"), which is attached to the eardrum
the incus (say: IN-kus) ("anvil"), which is attached to the malleus
the stapes (say: STAY-peez) ("stirrup"), which is attached to the incus and is the smallest bone in the body

To hear properly, the pressure on both sides of your eardrum must be equal. When you go up or down in elevation, the air pressure changes and you may feel a popping sensation as your ears adjust. They adjust thanks to the narrow Eustachian (say: yoo-STAY-she-en) tube that connects the middle ear to the back of the nose and acts as a sort of pressure valve, so the pressure stays balanced on both sides of the eardrum.

The Inner Ear: Nerve Signals Start Here

The vibrations from the middle ear change into nerve signals in the inner ear. The inner ear includes the cochlea (say: KOH-klee-uh) and the semicircular canals. The snail-shaped cochlea changes the vibrations from the middle ear into nerve signals. These signals travel to the brain along the cochlear nerve, also known as the auditory nerve.

The semicircular canals look like three tiny connected tubes. It's their job to help you balance. The canals are filled with fluid and lined with tiny hairs. When your head moves, the fluid in the canals sloshes around, moving the hairs. The hairs send this position information as signals through the vestibular (say: veh-STIB-yuh-ler) nerve to your brain. The brain interprets these signals and sends messages to the muscles that help keep you balanced.

When you spin around and stop, the reason you feel dizzy is because the fluid in your semicircular canals continues to slosh around for awhile, giving your brain the idea that you're still spinning even when you aren't. When the fluid stops moving, the dizziness goes away.

The cochlear nerve, which is attached to the cochlea and sends sound information to the brain, and the vestibular nerve, which carries balance information from the semicircular canals to the brain, together make up the vestibulocochlear (say: vess-tib-yuh-lo-KOH-klee-er) nerve.

How Can I Keep My Ears Healthy?

Take good care of your ears! Here are some smart steps:

Don't stick things like cotton swabs and fingernails into them. Doing so can scratch the ear canal, push earwax deeper into the ear, and even rupture the eardrum. If earwax bothers you, talk to a parent, who can let your doctor know.Protect your hearing. Turn down the volume on video games, TV and, especially, portable music players. Wear hearing protection (like earplugs or protective earmuffs/headphones) if you'll be around loud noises (at a concert, car race, etc.). Hearing damage builds over time. But it doesn't take long for problems to develop. Tiny earbuds can harm your hearing as much as a large chainsaw. Keep this in mind when you reach to turn up the volume.If you have any trouble hearing, let your mom or dad know right away. They can take you to a doctor for a hearing test.

THE TAINOS

Taino

Taino, Arawakan-speaking people who at the time of Christopher Columbus’s exploration inhabited what are now Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Once the most numerous indigenous people of the Caribbean, the Taino may have numbered one or two million at the time of the Spanish conquest in the late 15th century. They had long been on the defensive against the aggressive Carib people, who had conquered the Lesser Antilles to the east.

When they were first encountered by Europeans, the Taino practiced a high-yielding form of shifting agriculture to grow their staple foods, cassava and yams. They would burn the forest or scrub and then heap the ashes and soil into mounds that could be easily planted, tended, and irrigated. Corn (maize), beans, squash, tobacco, peanuts (groundnuts), and peppers were also grown, and wild plants were gathered. Birds, lizards, and small animals were hunted for food, the only domesticated animals being dogs and, occasionally, parrots used to decoy wild birds within range of hunters. Fish and shellfish were another important food source.

Traditional Taino settlements ranged from small family compounds to groups of 3,000 people. Houses were built of logs and poles with thatched roofs. Men wore loincloths and women wore aprons of cotton or palm fibres. Both sexes painted themselves on special occasions, and they wore earrings, nose rings, and necklaces, which were sometimes made of gold. The Taino also made pottery, baskets, and implements of stone and wood. A favourite form of recreation was a ball game played on rectangular courts. The Taino had an elaborate system of religious beliefs and rituals that involved the worship of spirits (zemis) by means of carved representations. They also had a complex social order, with a government of hereditary chiefs and subchiefs and classes of nobles, commoners, and slaves.

The Taino were easily conquered by the Spaniards beginning in 1493. Enslavement, starvation, and disease reduced them to a few thousand by 1520 and to near extinction by 1550. Those who survived mixed with Spaniards, Africans, and others. Taino culture was largely wiped out, although several groups claiming Taino descent gained visibility in the late 20th century, notably in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. state of Florida. In 1998 the United Confederation of Taino People, which characterizes itself as an “Inter-Tribal authority,” was created as an umbrella organization for the affirmation and restoration of Taino culture, language, and religion. Whereas the Taino are not officially recognized as a group by any governments, those who consider themselves Taino claim the right to self-determination.

PARISHES AND CAPITALS

Parshes in Jamaica

Jamaica is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the largest English-speaking territory. Situated south of Cuba and west of Haiti in the North West region of the Caribbean Sea, Jamaica has a maximum length, from east to west, of about 235 km (146 mi); the maximum width being around 80 km (50 mi). The total area of the nation is approximately 10,991 sq km (4,244 sq mi). Recently regarded as an archipelagic state by the Maritime Areas Act, Jamaica’s territory extends beyond its coastline to comprise some 66 islands, rocks and cays.

The island is divided into three counties – Cornwall, Middlesex and Surrey – which are subdivided into 14 parishes: Kingston, St. Andrew, St. Catherine, Clarendon, Manchester, St. Elizabeth, Westmoreland, Hanover, St. James, Trelawny, St. Ann, St. Mary, Portland and St. Thomas. Each parish has a capital town, which is typically the centre of commerce and two parish capitals, Montego Bay in St. James and Kingston, have city status. Kingston, located on the island’s southeast end, is Jamaica’s capital.

Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, and also a large commercial seaport.

Official Name – Jamaica

Capital – Kingston

Population – 2,711,476

Area – 10,991 sq km (4,244 sq mi)

Official Language – English

Currency – Jamaican dollar (JMD)

PARISH PROFILES

Surrey

Middlesex

Cornwall

People of Jamaica

Ethnic groups and languages

Jamaica: Ethnic composition

Spanish colonists had virtually exterminated the aboriginal Taino people by the time the English invaded the island in 1655. The Spaniards themselves escaped the island or were expelled shortly afterward. The population of English settlers remained small, but they brought in vast numbers of African slaves to work the sugar estates. Today the population consists predominantly of the descendants of those slaves, with a small proportion of people of mixed African and European descent. Even fewer in number are people who trace their ancestry to the United Kingdom, India, China, the Middle East, Portugal, and Germany.

English, the official language, is commonly used in towns and among the more-privileged social classes. Jamaican Creole is also widely spoken. Its vocabulary and grammar are based in English, but its various dialects derive vocabulary and phrasing from West African languages, Spanish, and, to a lesser degree, French. The grammatical structure, lyrical cadences, intonations, and pronunciations of Creole make it a distinct language.

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