George Stephenson was born in 1781 in a poor 【小题1】. He had to start work when he was only eight. When George was fourteen, he became his father's helper. He spent a lot of time 【小题2】 (learn) about engines. On 【小题3】 [´hɒlədeɪz], he often took engines into pieces and studied each piece 【小题4】 (careful). Soon he became a very good worker though he could not read 【小题5】 write.

He 【小题6】 (begin) to lean the English letters when he was seventeen years old. Every day 【小题7】 he did twelve hours of hard work, he walked a long way to have lessons from a young teacher.

On his eighteenth birthday, he wrote his own name 【小题8】 the first time in his life. George invented many things in his life. The train was the 【小题9】 (great) one among them. Today when we watch or take trains from one place to 【小题10】 [ə´nʌðə], we will think of this great man—George Stephenson.