Page 3 - BOOK V Unit 5

Reading and Thinking

Learn about first aid for burns

1 Before you read, discuss these questions in groups.

1 What first-aid techniques do you know of?
2 If someone you know suffered a burn, what would you do?

2 Look through the text and identify its
style and language features. Then tick Understand text types
its text type from the list below. Different kinds of texts can be identified by their style
of writing and language features. By understanding
advertisement blog post the text type of a piece of writing, you can better
hospital leaflet email understand its purpose. You can also better understand
where to find information in the text, and what kind of
newspaper article short story information it is likely to contain.

FIRST AID FOR BURNS

The skin is an essential part of your body and is its largest organ. Your skin
acts as a barrier against disease, toxins, and the sun’s rays. It also helps
control your body temperature, prevents your body from losing too much
water, warns you when things are too hot or cold, and gives you your
sense of touch. As you can imagine, getting burnt can lead to very serious
injuries. The first and most important step in the treatment of burns is giving
first aid.

CAUSES OF BURNS
You can get burnt by a variety of things: hot liquids, steam, fire, radiation,
the sun, electricity, acids, or other chemicals.
TYPES OF BURNS

Burns are divided into three types, depending on the depth of skin damage.

• First-degree burns These affect only the top few millimetres of the skin. These burns are not serious.
Examples include mild sunburn and burns caused by other minor household incidents.

• Second-degree burns These go below the top layer of the skin. They are serious and take a few
weeks to get better. Examples include burns caused by hot liquids.
• Third-degree burns These affect every layer of the skin, and sometimes the tissue under it. Examples
include burns caused by electric shocks, burning clothes, or petrol fires. These burns cause very
severe internal injuries and the victim must go to the hospital at once.

CHARACTERISTICS OF BURNS

First-degree burns Third-degree burns
• dry, red, and mildly swollen • black and white
• mildly painful • swollen; the tissue underneath can often be
• turn white when pressed seen
Second-degree burns • little or no pain if nerves are damaged; may
• red and swollen; blisters; watery surface be painful around the edges of the burn
• extremely painful

50 UNIT 5 FIRST AID