Years ago I worked at a factory in a small county. Every day I got up very early and often did much extra work at night. I was so tired and exhausted. My whole life was hopeless. Then one day I read the following article from a magazine:
"A woman went to live with her husband in camp on the Mojave Desert during the war. She simply hated the place: the heat was almost un-bearable, 125 degrees in the shade, the wind blew incessantly, and there was sand everywhere. Finally, in desperation (不顾一切地) she wrote her parents in Ohio that she couldn't stand it another minute and was coming home.
Quickly came the reply by airmail from her father——just two lines:
"Two men looked out from prison bars. One saw the mud, the other saw stars."
The daughter did some real thinking, not only with the intellect (思维) but also with her heart. She decided to stick to her post.
She made friends with the natives, learned to love the country, and eventually wrote a book about it.
The desert hadn't changed, but her attitude had. Because she listened with her heart  to the words her father sent, a whole new world opened up to her.
A change of attitude could change everything.
After reading the article, I was deep in thought (陷入沉思)…
【小题1】At first, the woman          the life with her husband in the desert.

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（发动机）．And on holidays he often made one engine 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 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（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．
【小题1】In which year did George Stephenson start to help his father？________．