A Graduate and Poor Children

We have been learning English as a foreign language for nine years. In April we are sitting a final exam in English. Sometimes we dream of having 10-month holidays and a two-month school year. Learning new words is such a boring job! How we can distinguish between apple and apply? They both look almost the same!
However, last week we read about children in Victorian times. It seems impossible but even little kids had to work really, really hard. Their job was often very dangerous and awful ! Many children worked as chimney sweeps. They had to climb up the chimney and sweep out all the soot. The chimneys were narrow and it was difficult to breathe. Other children worked long, long hours in coal mines where they had to draw the coal trucks along passages as little as 18 inches high. If you find out such horrible facts, learning new English words looks like great fun.
Moreover, a special guest is visiting our English lessons. This is Roxana, our former student. Currently she is studying English at college because she wants to become an English teacher. She showed us where she was sitting while she was a pupil of our school and gave us a few clues how to memorize the most difficult English words.