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Inventors and Inventions

Inventors of the Wheel

Inventors of the Wheel
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 6 to 7
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   5.71

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    cartoon-style, spoked, sledges, spokes, military, carving, better, lightweight, lighter, version, tires, supplies, evidence, avoid, pulley, actual
     content words:    Bronze Age, United States

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Inventors of the Wheel
By Sharon Fabian 		  
1     You probably don't drive a car yet. Still, many of you seem to have a great interest in wheels. No wonder! Once you have wheels, you may be able to drive to school and avoid riding the yellow bus. You may be able to drive to your favorite fast food restaurant for a snack. You may drive to the movies or a school dance. Maybe you will drive to the mall to get some cool stuff, or maybe you will drive to a job.
 
2     Of course, you already know a lot about wheels. Ever since kindergarten, you have known that "the wheels on the bus go round and round." Maybe now you know details about different types of sports car wheels too.
 
3     But do you know where the wheel came from? Who invented the wheel? Maybe you've seen one of those cartoon-style pictures of a cave man carving the first wheel out of a huge rock. This just might not be the true picture of how the wheel was invented. Machines are usually invented when someone needs to find a better way to get a job done. This was probably why the first wheels were created too. Before there were wheels, sledges were pulled to transport a heavy load. Log rollers may have been placed under large, heavy objects to help move them too.
 
4     The first evidence of actual wheels being used is from the Bronze Age, somewhere around 3500 BC. One of the groups of people in ancient Mesopotamia, the Sumerians, used wheels made of a solid piece of wood. Heavy four-wheeled carts were equipped with these wheels and pulled by oxen to carry very heavy loads such as metal, timber, or military supplies.

Paragraphs 5 to 11:
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