Humans have many organs（器官）, but you can enjoy lots of things because of your ears. Do you know how the ears work?
The ear has three parts: the outer ear（外耳）, the middle ear and the inner ear（内耳）. The outer ear is the part you can see. It collects sounds around you. The sounds then travel down to the middle ear, the inner ear and then to your brain.
Your ears never stop working, even when you are asleep! In other words, your ears continue hearing sounds, but you can't hear the sounds just because your brain ignores them.
But ears do more than hear. They help you keep balanced（平衡的）, too. In the inner ear, there are organs that are filled with liquid（液体）and covered with small hairs. When you move your head, the liquid and hairs move, too. They send messages to your brain about the position of your head.
More surprisingly, ears even help to taste food. Of course, you don't actually taste food with your ears. But there are nerves（神经）running through the middle ear that connect the tongue（舌头） to the brain. If something happens to your ears, you might have a hard time telling different tastes.
The ears are truly important organs. We should protect our ears well.
