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.Ihad 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.

　　選詞填空練習選項：

　　A) barely B) genuine C) rewarded D) doubt E) lonely

　　F) poverty G) persuade H) prospects I) uncertainty J)impossibly

　　K) encourage L)awarded M) alone N)wealth　　 O)cold

　　選詞填空練習答案：

　　1. 選K)。 此處應填動詞的原形。可選項有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，此處應填名詞。可選項有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)。此處應填形容詞，private, poor-paying一起修飾affair。選項中有lonely和alone,能修飾affair的只有lonely,alone表示“孤獨的”時，通常作表語，故排除alone而選lonely。

　　4.選C)。此處應填動詞的被動形式。可選項有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，授予”，故只有rewarded符合題意而排除awarded。

　　5.選H)。此處應填名詞。“當我辭別了我在美國海岸警衛隊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)。“我馬上買了一臺舊的手動打字機，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genuine“真正的”符合題意。

　　8.選D)。由空格前的to可知，此處應填動詞的原形。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展”，所以此處應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從句結構完整，后面有made，故此處應填副詞。可選項有barely和impossibly，因that引導的從句是對story的解釋，再由hard一詞可推知，此處應填的副詞應表達肯定的意思，故排除impossibly而選barely“僅僅，剛剛”。

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