Passage One
Dorothea Dix left home at an early age of her own free will to live with her grandmother.
At fourteen, Dorothea was teaching school at Worcester, Massachusetts. A short time after she had begun teaching, she established a school for young girls in her grandparents’ home. Stress was placed on moral character at Dorothea’s school, which she conducted until she was thirty-three.
She was forced to give up teaching at her grandparents’ home, however, when she became ill. A few year of inactivity followed.
In 1841 Dorothea began to teach again, accepting a Sunday school class in the East Cambridge, in a Massachusetts’ jail. Here, she first came upon insane people locked up together with criminals.
In those days insane people were treated even worse than criminals. There were only a few asylums in the entire country. Therefore jails, poor houses, and houses of correction were used to confine the insane.
Dorothea Dix made a careful investigation of the inhuman treatment of the insane. It was considered unfit for a woman to devote herself to such work at this time. But this did not stop Dorothea Dix in her efforts to provide proper medical care for the insane.
Gradually, because of her investigations, conditions were improved. More than thirty mental institutions were founded or re-established in the United States because of her efforts. Dorothea also extended her investigations to England and to other parts of Europe.
During the Civil War, Dorothea served as superintendent of women hospital nurses in the Union army. When the war was over, she returned to her work of improving conditions for insane people.

The word “stress” in Line 3 of Paragraph 2 could best be replaced by ________?