单选题 Many a young person tells me he wants to be a writer. I always encourage such people, but I also explain that there"s a big difference between "being a writer" and writing. In most cases these individuals are dreaming of wealth and fame, not the long hour 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 lonely, private and poor-paying affair. For every writer kissed by fortune there are thousands more whose longing is never rewarded. When I left a 20-year career in the U.S. Coast Guard to become a freelance (自由栏目) writer, I had no prospects 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 cold and had no bathroom. I immediately bought a used manual typewriter and felt like a genuine writer.
After a year or so, however, I still hadn"t gotten a break and began to doubt myself. It was so hard to sell a story that I barely 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 of those people who die wondering: What if? I would keep putting my dream to the test even though it meant living with uncertainty and fear of failure. This is the shadowland of hope, and anyone with a dream must learn to live there.

单选题 The passage is meant to ______.

A、 warn young people of the hardships that a successful writer has to experience
B、 advise young people to give up their idea of becoming a professional writer
C、 show young people it"s unrealistic for a writer to pursue wealth and fame
D、 encourage young people to pursue a writing career

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】主旨大意题。在通读全文的基础上，可以概括出作者的用意是要告诫年轻人在成功道路上一定会充满艰辛，但还是要坚持梦想。选项B与文章内容相悖；选项C并不是全文的意图，以偏盖全；选项D不是全文的主旨。故选A。

单选题 What can be concluded from the passage?

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】细节判断题。选项A是文章中没有提到的内容，因为文中没有涉及genuine writer真正的作家的具体内容，只是提了一下作者买了二手打字机后，自我感觉像是一个真正的作家；选项B与文章之中的信息相矛盾；选项C也是文中没有涉及的信息。故选D，作家获得成功的机会很小，与文中第二段第二句意思相符。

单选题 Why did the author begin to doubt himself after the first year of his writing career?

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】细节判断题。第三段开头部分，作者提到了自己写了大约一年之后的境况：没有突破，卖个故事糊口都很艰难。因此，可以判断出答案应该是没有突破、进步等，故选B。

单选题 "...people who die wondering: What if?" (Line 3, Para 3) refers to "those ______".

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】逻辑推断题。根据原句上下文，作者不会成为总在问“what if(如果…会怎样)”的人，并且作者在后一句提出“尽管有不确定性和失败的恐惧，但仍然要不断地践行梦想”，由此可以推论出选项C“那些总在想而不做决定去实践的人”为最佳选项。选项A属于过度推论；选项B属于干扰项，文中没有涉及是否放弃；选项D与文中内容无关，属于干扰项。

单选题 "Shadowland" in the last sentence refers to ______.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】语义推断题。找到该词与上下文中对应的词语，来帮助推断其具体含义。文章的结尾句，代词this指代前一句中it meant living with uncertainty and fear of failure的内容，所以，“This is the shadowland”中的shadowland就是之前所说的uncertainty和fear of failure。故选C。