8．
阅读理解
George Stephenson was born in 1781 in a
poor family. He had to start to work when he was only eight. When George was
fourteen, he became his father's helper. He spent a lot of time learning about
engines (发动机). And on holidays he often took one engine into pieces and studied
each piece carefully. Soon he became a very good worker though (尽管) he could not read or write. He began to learn the English letters
when he was seventeen years old. Every day after he did twelve hours' hard
work, he walked a long way to have lessons from a young school teacher. On his
eighteenth birthday, he wrote his own name for the first time in his life.
George invented (发明) many things in his life. The train
was the greatest one among them. Today when we take trains from one place to
another, we'll think of this great man—George Stephenson.
