One of the greatest achievements was the new weapons. They used to only have bows and arrows, but that was no match for cannons and guns! The rival country was to match for the Chinese. 
    Another important Chinese achievements was The Great Wall of China. One of the 7 Wonders of the World, the Great Wall extends over thousands of miles. During the making, many slaves died due to harsh working conditions and their bodies were buried inside the wall. Kind of a creepy thought. It took many years to complete.
     The final Chinese achievement was silk. Silk was a very valued material that only the Chinese knew how to make. The process was kept top secret, so people could only get silk from China, causing the country to prosper. Well, now the secret is out. They unwound the silky threads off of a silkworm cocoon and use it as thread. The threads are woven together to make cloth for clothes and many other things.

   The griots were ancient storytellers of West Africa. Since West Africans didn't have a written language, history was passed down orally, which is refered to as oral history. Some stories were to entertain and others were to inform. People came from  far and wide to hear stories of the griots. The stories all have a moral, or lesson, to be learned, similar to fairytales such as: Cinderella, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, The 3 Little Pigs, etc. We read a story in class and the moral was to never give up or stay strong. A boy was born into a family and he could neither walk nor speak. Some people ignored and others ridiculed.