2017年英語四級閱讀練習(xí)及試題解析（十八）

　　Many a young person tells me he wants to be a writer. I always __1__ such people, but I also explain that there’sa big difference between "being a writer" and writing. In most cases these individuals are dreaming of __2__ and fame, notthe long hours alone at a typewriter. "You’ve got to want to write," I say to them, "not want to be a writer."The reality is that writing is a __3__, private and poor-paying affair. For every writer kissed by fortune there arethousands more whose longing is never __4__. When I left a 20-year career in the US. Coast Guard to become a freelancewriter(自由撰稿人), I had no __5__ at all. What I did have was a friend who found me my room in a New York apartment building. It didn’t even matter that it was __6__and had no bathroom. I immediately bought a used manual typewriter and feltlike a __7__ writer.After a year or so, however, I still hadn’t gotten a break and began to __8__ myself. It was so hard to sell a storythat __9__ made enough to eat. But I knew I wanted to write. I had dreamed about it for years. I wasn’t going to be one ofthose people who die wondering, what if? I would keeo putting my dream to the test----even though it meant living with __10__and fear of failure. This is the Shadow land of hope, and anyone with a dream learn to live there.A) barely B) genuine C) rewarded D) doubtE) lonely F) poverty G) persuade H) prospectsI) uncertainty J)impossibly K) encourage L)awardedM) alone N)wealth O)cold

　　Answers:1.選K)。 此處應(yīng)填動詞的原形�？蛇x項有doubt, persuade, encourage, 但由always推知，作者是在鼓勵那些想要成為作家的人，而不是懷疑也不是說服，故排除doubt和persuade而選encourage。

　　2.選N)。由空格后的fame可知，此處應(yīng)填名詞�？蛇x項有prospects和wealth，但由dreaming of 與第二段中The reality is... poor-paying可推知，那些想當(dāng)作家的人夢想的是金錢和名譽，而不是前途，故排除prospects而選wealth。

　　3.選E)。此處應(yīng)填形容詞，private, poor-paying一起修飾affair。選項中有l(wèi)onely和alone,能修飾affair的只有l(wèi)onely,alone表示“孤獨的”時，通常作表語，故排除alone而選lonely。

　　4.選C)。此處應(yīng)填動詞的被動形式�？蛇x項有rewarded和awarded,前者可表示“(為所希望的舉動得到的)回報”，后者作動詞時表示“頒發(fā)，授予”，故只有rewarded符合題意而排除awarded。

　　5.選H)。此處應(yīng)填名詞�！爱�(dāng)我辭別了我在美國海岸警衛(wèi)隊20年工作成為一個自由撰稿人時，沒有任何......可言”，可選項有prospects和wealth，但wealth一般指抽象意義上的“金錢”，因此排除wealth而選prospects“前途”。

　　6.選O)。it指代的是apartment building，從had no bathroom可知這個公寓條件很差，選項中只有cold能說明公寓的條件差，故選擇O)cold。

　　7.選B)�！拔荫R上買了一臺舊的手動打字機(jī)，感覺自己就好像是一個......的作家”，由前面提到的to become a freelance writer可推知，此處作者是想成為一個真正的作家，故選項中只有g(shù)enuine“真正的”符合題意。

　　8.選D)。由空格前的to可知，此處應(yīng)填動詞的原形。可選項有doubt,persuade,encourage,但由still hadn’t gotten a break"在寫作上還沒有任何進(jìn)展”，所以此處應(yīng)理解為他開始懷疑自己的選擇是否正確，故doubt符合文意。

　　9.選A)。that從句結(jié)構(gòu)完整，后面有made，故此處應(yīng)填副詞�？蛇x項有barely和impossibly，因that引導(dǎo)的從句是對story的解釋，再由hard一詞可推知，此處應(yīng)填的副詞應(yīng)表達(dá)肯定的意思，故排除impossibly而選barely“僅僅，剛剛”。

　　10.選I)。由空格后的and可知，此處應(yīng)填名詞。由fear of failure可知，所填詞應(yīng)表示不好的境遇，可選項有poverty和uncertainty;又由fear可推知，此處強(qiáng)調(diào)的是生活的變化無常，而不是生活的貧困，故選uncertainty。