2017年英语四级阅读练习及试题解析（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.选K)。 此处应填动词的原形。可选项有doubt, persuade, encourage, 但由always推知，作者是在鼓励那些想要成为作家的人，而不是怀疑也不是说服，故排除doubt和persuade而选encourage。

　　2.选N)。由空格后的fame可知，此处应填名词。可选项有prospects和wealth，但由dreaming of 与第二段中The reality is... poor-paying可推知，那些想当作家的人梦想的是金钱和名誉，而不是前途，故排除prospects而选wealth。

　　3.选E)。此处应填形容词，private, poor-paying一起修饰affair。选项中有lonely和alone,能修饰affair的只有lonely,alone表示“孤独的”时，通常作表语，故排除alone而选lonely。

　　4.选C)。此处应填动词的被动形式。可选项有rewarded和awarded,前者可表示“(为所希望的举动得到的)回报”，后者作动词时表示“颁发，授予”，故只有rewarded符合题意而排除awarded。

　　5.选H)。此处应填名词。“当我辞别了我在美国海岸警卫队20年工作成为一个自由撰稿人时，没有任何......可言”，可选项有prospects和wealth，但wealth一般指抽象意义上的“金钱”，因此排除wealth而选prospects“前途”。

　　6.选O)。it指代的是apartment building，从had no bathroom可知这个公寓条件很差，选项中只有cold能说明公寓的条件差，故选择O)cold。

　　7.选B)。“我马上买了一台旧的手动打字机，感觉自己就好像是一个......的作家”，由前面提到的to become a freelance writer可推知，此处作者是想成为一个真正的作家，故选项中只有genuine“真正的”符合题意。

　　8.选D)。由空格前的to可知，此处应填动词的原形。可选项有doubt,persuade,encourage,但由still hadn’t gotten a break"在写作上还没有任何进展”，所以此处应理解为他开始怀疑自己的选择是否正确，故doubt符合文意。

　　9.选A)。that从句结构完整，后面有made，故此处应填副词。可选项有barely和impossibly，因that引导的从句是对story的解释，再由hard一词可推知，此处应填的副词应表达肯定的意思，故排除impossibly而选barely“仅仅，刚刚”。

　　10.选I)。由空格后的and可知，此处应填名词。由fear of failure可知，所填词应表示不好的境遇，可选项有poverty和uncertainty;又由fear可推知，此处强调的是生活的变化无常，而不是生活的贫困，故选uncertainty。