Script+p7+digestive

__**CAROLINE:**__ ** Hi, I'm Caroline. The first stop in the digestive system is the mouth. The first place that food goes on its journey through the digestive system is the mouth. That is where we chop the food into small pieces that make digestion easier. The food makes our saliva produce much more quickly. That makes digesting much easier because the saliva breaks down the food. **
 * // __RYAN:__ Hello, this is your Wildcat evening news. Today we have a special topic to discuss. We will be discussing the digestive system and how it works.  //**

__**//AMBER://**__ Thank you Ryan. Hi, I'm Amber! Another name for the pharynx is the throat. Swallowing our foods happens in this organ. The tongue and the soft palate push the food down into our pharynx. Then the food travels down the throat and is brought into the esophagus. The esophagus is a muscular organ that carries the food to the stomach. The food goes through the esophagus because our stomach contracts and does a process called peristalsis. The food is then delivered into the stomach.

**//__RYAN:__// Thank you for that information on the pharynx and the esophagus. Now we will be moving back to Caroline. **
//__**CAROLINE:**__// Thanks Ryan! The stomach's first job is to accept and store the food that enters it, and In response to the arrival of food, glands present in the lining of the stomach acid.Muscles in the wall of the stomach help to move the food and acid around making sure that they mix thoroughly**, and** stomach acid helps to break down the food further into smaller, easier to digest fragments. The acid also kills bacteria contained in the swallowed food or saliva. Now to Amber in the small intestine.

__**//AMBER://**__ Thanks Caroline. now we are moving to the small intestines. In biology the small intestine is the part of the gut between the stomach and the large intestine, and comprises the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum. It is where the vast majority of digestion takes place. Nutrients diffuse through the villi, projections sticking out of the walls of the small intestine and goes into the blood. next we go to Ryan for the colon.

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__//**RYAN:**//__ Next we have the colon. T he colon is a 5 to 6-foot-long muscular tube that connects the cecum. It is made up of the ascending, transverse colon, descending colon, and the sigmoid colon. By the way, the sigmoid colon connects to the rectum. W aste or stool, left over from the digestive process, is passed through the colon by means of peristalsis. It starts in a liquid state and then it turns into a solid state. A stool is stored in the sigmoid colon until a "mass movement" empties it into the rectum once or twice a day. It normally takes about 36 hours for waste to get through the colon. The waste itself is mostly food debris and bacteria. These bacteria perform several useful functions, such as synthesizing various vitamins, processing waste products and food particles, and protecting against harmful bacteria. When the descending colon becomes full of waste it empties its contents into the rectum to begin the process of elimination. Now back to Caroline who will be talking about the rectum. ======

__**//CAROLINE://**__  The rectum, Latin for "straight", is an 8-inch chamber that connects the colon to the anus. It is the rectum's job to receive waste from the colon, to let you know there is waste to be evacuated, and to hold the waste until evacuation happens. When anything, gas or waste, comes into the rectum, sensors send a message to the brain. The brain then decides if the rectal contents can be released or not. If they can, the muscles relax and the rectum contracts, expelling its contents. If the contents cannot be expelled, the muscles contract and the rectum accommodates, so that the sensation temporarily goes away.
 * // __AMBER:__ The anus is the last part of the digestive tract. It consists of the pelvic floor muscles and the two anal sphincters, internal and external muscles. The lining of the upper anus is specialized to detect rectal contents. It lets us know whether the contents are liquid, gas, or solid. The pelvic floor muscle creates an angle between the rectum and the anus that stops waste from coming out when it is not supposed to. The anal muscles provide fine control of waste. The internal sphincter keeps us from going to the bathroom when we are asleep, or otherwise unaware of the presence of waste. When we get an urge to go to the bathroom, we rely on our external sphincter to keep the waste in until we can get to the toilet. //**

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 * __Ryan:__ ** Thank you for that important information about the anus Amber! Speaking of the toilet, i really gotta go!!
 * __Caroline:__ ** Well thank you for watching the Wildcat Evening News with our special topic of the digestive system! Tune in next time for a news story on the Circulatory system! Bye!