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Zhang Heng
Zhang Heng was a Chinese polymath from the Han dynasty who excelled as an astronomer, mathematician, inventor…
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28 worksheets · answer keys · full story · quiz · Ages 3-5 · CEFR A1
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Hello. My name is Zhang Heng. I lived a very, very long time ago in a beautiful place called China. I loved to look up at the night sky. The stars were so sparkly and bright. I always wondered about the big world all around me. I liked to ask lots of questions. How does the sky work. What makes the sun shine. I was always thinking and learning new things. It was so much fun to be curious about everything.
Sometimes, the world felt a little wobbly. The ground would wiggle and shake. We call that an earthquake now. I wanted to help my friends know when this was happening, even if it was far away. Around the year 132, I built something amazing. It was a big, round pot. On the outside, I put eight dragons, all facing different ways. When the ground shook, a little ball would drop from one dragon's mouth right into a frog's mouth waiting below. This showed everyone which way the wiggle came from.
My time on Earth was full of asking questions and finding answers. I loved discovering new things. I lived to be 61 years old. Today, people remember me for my clever inventions. They helped us understand our wobbly planet and the beautiful stars up above. I hope you always stay curious and keep asking questions, just like me.
Zhang Heng
Hello. My name is Zhang Heng. I lived a very, very long time ago in a beautiful place called China. I loved to look up at the night sky. The stars were so sparkly and bright. I always wondered about the big world all around me. I liked to ask lots of questions. How does the sky work. What makes the sun shine. I was always thinking and learning new things. It was so much fun to be curious about everything.
Sometimes, the world felt a little wobbly. The ground would wiggle and shake. We call that an earthquake now. I wanted to help my friends know when this was happening, even if it was far away. Around the year 132, I built something amazing. It was a big, round pot. On the outside, I put eight dragons, all facing different ways. When the ground shook, a little ball would drop from one dragon's mouth right into a frog's mouth waiting below. This showed everyone which way the wiggle came from.
My time on Earth was full of asking questions and finding answers. I loved discovering new things. I lived to be 61 years old. Today, people remember me for my clever inventions. They helped us understand our wobbly planet and the beautiful stars up above. I hope you always stay curious and keep asking questions, just like me.
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Zhang Heng was a Chinese polymath from the Han dynasty who excelled as an astronomer, mathematician, inventor, geographer, artist, and poet. He is best known for inventing the world's first seismoscope and a water-powered armillary sphere.
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