阅读理解
George Stephenson was born in 1781 in a poor family. 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 learning about engines. And on holidays he often took one to pieces and studied each piece carefully. Soon he became a very good worker though 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 of 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 many things in his life. The train was the greatest one among them. Today when we watch or take trains from one place to another, we will think of this great man -- George Stephenson.
【小题1】 In which year did George Stephenson start to help his father?

Before Christmas Mr. Smith broke his right leg and had to stay in hospital. When he was there, he always asked his doctor when he could go home. He didn't like to spend Christmas in hospital. Though the doctor did his best, Mr. Smith didn't get better. So on Christmas Day he was still in hospital. He spent a bad day in bed thinking that he missed a lot of fun on such a happy day.
The next day the doctor told him that he might be well enough to leave hospital in time for the New Year. Mr. Smith was very happy to think that he would spend New Year's Day outside hospital. Soon Mr. Smith left hospital and on New Year's Eve he went to a party. He enjoyed himself there. But he drank too much. On his way home that night, he had a fall and broke his left leg. What an unlucky man he was！
【小题1】Mr. Smith spent Christmas Day in hospital because ______.

Bringing a giraffe into the world is a tall order. A baby giraffe is born 10 feet high and usually lands on its back. Within seconds it rolls over its legs under its body. Then the mother giraffe rudely introduces its children to the reality of life.
In his book, A View from the Zoo, Gary Richmond describes how a new-born giraffe learns its first lesson.
The mother giraffe lowers her head long enough to take a quick look. Then she puts herself directly over her child. She waits for about a minute, and then she does the most unreasonable thing. She throws her long leg and kicks her baby, so that it’s sent sprawling(四脚朝天).
When it doesn’t get up, the process is repeated again and again. The struggle to rise is important. As the baby giraffe grows tired, the mother kicks it again. Finally, it stands for the first time on its shaky legs. Then the mother giraffe kicks it off its feet again. Why? She wants it to remember how it got up. In the wild, a baby giraffe must be able to get up as quickly as possible to stay with its group, where there’s safety.
Another writer named Irving Stone understood this. He spent a lifetime studying greatness, writing stories about such men as Michelangelo, Vincent van Gogh, Sigmund Freud, and Charles Darwin.
Stone was once asked if he had found something that runs through the lives of all these great people. He said, “I write about people who sometime in their life have a dream of something. They’re beaten over the head, knocked down and for years they get nowhere. But every time they stand up again. And at the end of their lives they’ve realized some small parts of what they set out to do .”
【小题1】What does the underlined part “a tall order” in Paragraph 1 mean?