I left university with a good degree in English Literature, but no sense of what I wanted to do. Over the next six years, I was treading water, just trying to earn an income. I tried journalism, but I didn’t think I was any good, then finance, which I hated. Finally, I got a job as a rights assistant at a famous publisher. I loved working with books, although the job that I did was dull.

I had enough savings to take a year off work, and I decided to try to satisfy a deep-down wish to write a novel. Attending a Novel Writing MA course gave the structure I needed to write my first 55,000 words.

It takes confidence to make a new start — there’s a dark period in-between where you’re neither one thing nor the other. You’re out for dinner and people ask what you do, and you’re too ashamed to say, “Well, I’m writing a novel, but I’m not quite sure if I’m going to get there. My confidence dived. Believing my novel could not be published, I put it aside.

Then I met an agent（代理商）who said I should send my novel out to agents. So, I did and, to my surprise, got some wonderful feedback. I felt a little hope that I might actually become a published writer and, after signing with an agent, I finished the second half of the novel.

The next problem was finding a publisher. After two-and-a-half years of no income, just waiting and wondering, a publisher offered me a book deal — that publisher turned out to be the one I once worked for.

It feels like an unbelievable stroke of luck — of fate, really. When you set out to do something different, there’s no end in sight, so to find myself in a position where I now have my own name on a contract of the publisher — to be a published writer — is unbelievably rewarding.

68. What does the underlined part in Paragraph 1 mean?

A. I was waiting for good fortune.

B. I was trying to find an admirable job.

C. I was being aimless about a suitable job.

D. I was doing several jobs for more pay at a time.

69. The author decided to write a novel _______.

A. to finish the writing course

B. to realize her own dream

C. to satisfy readers’ wish

D. to earn more money

70. How did the writer feel halfway with the novel?

A. Disturbed.          B. Ashamed.         C. Confident.        D. Uncertain.

71. What does the author mainly want to tell readers in the last paragraph?

A. It pays to stick to one’s goal.

B. Hard work can lead to success.

C. She feels like being unexpectedly lucky.

D. There is no end in sight when starting to do something.

CBDA                           

練習冊系列答案
相關習題

科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解

When I was a child, I often dreamed of the time when I could leave home and escape to the city. We lived on a farm, in the winter especially, we wear quite out off from the outside world. As soon as I left school, I packed my bags and moved to the capital. However, I soon discovered that my life has its  too.

    One big disadvantage is money. It costs so much to go out, not to mention basics like food and housing. Another disadvantage is pollution. I suffer from asthma(哮喘), and  the air is so  that I am afraid to go outside. Then there is the problem of traveling round. Although I have a car, I seldom use it became of the traffic jams. One choice is to go by bicycle, but that can be quite dangerous.

    Of course there are advantages. First, there is so much to do in the city, whatever you tastes in culture or entertainment(娛樂活動). Besides, there are wonderful jobs and greater chances of moving to a more important job or position. Finally, if you like shopping, the variety of goods is very surprising --- and , what is more, shops are often only a short walk away.

    Is life better then, in the city? Perhaps it is , when you are in your teens(十幾歲)or twenties. However, as you get older, and especially if you have small children, the peace of the countryside may seem preferable. I certainly hope to move back there soon.

What was the writer always thinking about when he was a child?

   A. Staying on the farm.                B. Moving to the countryside.

   C. Leaving home for the city.           D. Running away from the school.

Which of the following is true about the writer?

   A. He is very old now.                 B. He is in good health.

   C. He prefers driving a car.              D. He lives in the city now.

In the passage, the writer tries to __________.

   A. express his opinions about way of life      B. describe his life in the countryside

   C. an interest in the outside world           D. persuade the reader to live in the city

How is the passage mainly developed?

   A. By inferring.     B. By comparing.    C. By listing examples.   D. By giving explanations.

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源：2012屆陜西省長安一中高三開學第一次考試英語試卷 題型：填空題

根據(jù)對話情景和內(nèi)容，從對話后所給的選項中選出能填入空白處的最佳選項。并在答題卡上將該選項涂黑。選項中有兩項為多余選項。
—Young people are given too much freedom nowadays, and as a result they have lost respect for their parents and elders in general．
—【小題1】 My parents gave me advice but never forced me to do anything I didn`t want to do ．I respect and love them for this．
—【小題2】
—Oh, yes． After I left school and started to work as a nurse, I became economically independent．
—【小題3】
—I am． Many young people today say they have nothing in common with their parents． But I`m very lucky because I get along very well with them． What about you?
—【小題4】 I am also very fond of my family． But I don`t always get along very well with my parents． They seldom allow me to do what I want to．
—But they allowed you to come to study in England on your own．
—【小題5】

A．You seem very close to your parents．
B．Yes, but that`s after many times of request．
C．I don`t think so．
D．Well, we value family life very much in my country．
E． What about your parents?
F． Are you quite independent of them now?
G． They are strict with me．

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源：2015屆四川成都南片區(qū)六校聯(lián)考高二上學期期中考試英語試卷（解析版） 題型：閱讀理解

This is a true story of how my car got stuck in water and how a stranger helped me during the worst rain storm.

Last Sunday, the sky was grey when I woke up. The weather report said rain was coming, but I couldn’t stay home just because of rain.

Around 8:00 am I had a doctor’s appointment. It wasn’t raining then. At 9:00 I left the doctor’s office to drive to work, and it was raining hard. I just had to go about 5-6 miles down one main road to get to a nearby school, where I could stay until the rain ended. Unfortunately, the road in front of the school was flooded, and my car stopped in the middle.

“Who is going to save me?” I wondered. I shut off the engine and turned on my flashers (車燈). I called 911. They were not helpful. I called my husband, even though he couldn’t come and help me. I was also very close to a police station. But I never saw even one police car. I decided to get out of the car, since it was still pouring.

My best decision of the day had been to wear rain boots. I took my umbrella and quickly got out and ran across the street to a shelter.

Before long, a tow truck(拖車) happened to pass by the street. The driver kindly offered to help me. At that moment, I really needed car pulled out quickly, so I trusted the stranger. He pulled my car and drove me home. After he had dropped my car off, he also helped me check the engine. He said the engine was most likely flooded, but fortunately there was no water inside the car.

Although many years have passed, I still remember that stormy day and the warm-hearted stranger clearly.

1.How was the weather when the author got up?

A. Rainy.                                B. Cloudy.                    C. Windy.                     D. Sunny.

2.Which of the following is the correct order about the things that the author did?

① Drove to work.                                                  ② Drove to the doctor’s office.

③ Ran to a shelter.                                             ④ Called 911 for help.

A. ②①④③                        B. ②③①④                        C. ①②④③                        D. ①③②④

3.What did the author do after her car had got stuck in the water?

A. She turned off her flashers.

B. She tried to restart the engine.

C. She went to the police station nearby.

D. She got out of her car.

4.How did the stranger help the author?

A. He lent his car to her.                     

B. He pulled her car out of the water.

C. He drove her to school.                  

D. He helped her fix her engine.

 

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源：2014屆寧夏高三上期第一次月考英語卷（解析版） 題型：閱讀理解

“Indeed，” George Washington wrote in his diary in 1985, “some kind of fly, or bug, had begun to eat the leaves before I left home.” But the father of America was not the father of bug. When Washington wrote that, Englishmen had been referring to insects as bugs for more than a century, and Americans had already created lighining-bug(螢火蟲)。But the English were soon to stop using the bugs in their language, leaving it to the Americans to call a bug a bug in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The American bug could also be a person, referring to someone who was crazy about a particular activity. Althoug fan became the usual term. sports fans used to be called racing bugs, baseballbugs, and the like.

Or the bug could be a small machine or object, for example, a bug-shaped car. The bug could also be a burglar alarm, from which comes the expression to bug, that is, “to install (安裝) an alarm”. Now it means a small piece of equipment that people use for listening secretly to others’ conversation. Since the 1840s, to bug has long meant “to cheat”, and since the 1940s it has been annoying.

         We also know the bug as a flaw in a computer program or other design. That meaning dates back to the time of Thomas Edison. In 1878 he explained bugs as “l(fā)ittle problems and difficulties” that required months of study and labor to overcome in developing a successful product. In 1889 it was recorded that Edison “had been up the two previous nights discovering ‘a(chǎn) bug’ in his invented record player.”

1.We learn from Paragraph 1 that ___________.

A.Americans had difficulty in learning to use the word bug

B.George Washington was the first person to call an insect a bug

C.the word bug was still popularly used in English in the nineteenth century

D.both Englishmen and Americans used the word bug in the eighteenth century

2.What does the word “flaw” in the last paragraph probably mean?

A. Explanation.           B. Finding.                   C. Origin.            D. Fault.

3.The passage is mainly concerned with__________.

A. the misunderstanding of the word bug

B. the development of the word bug

C. the public views of the word bug

D. the special characteristics of the word bug

 

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源：2013年全國普通高等學校招生統(tǒng)一考試英語（浙江卷解析版） 題型：完型填空

Last spring, I was fortunate to be chosen to participate in an exchange study program. In my application letter, I was careful to   21  how much I wanted to see France; evidently, my excitement really came through in my words. Once I   22   that I was going, all I could think about was the fun of foreign travel and making all sorts of new and   23  friends. While traveling was inspiring and meeting people was   24  , nothing about my term in France was what I   25 .       

The moment I arrived in Paris, I was   26  by a nice French couple who would become my host parents. My entire experience was joyous and exciting  27  I received some shocking news from my program coordinator（協(xié)調(diào)人）: there had been a death in my host parents’ extended family. They had to travel outside France for several weeks. That afternoon, I had to   28  out of one family’s house into another. The exchange coordinator told me I’d have a   29  this time and asked whether I could share a bedroom with an English speaker. To avoid the temptation(誘惑) to   30 my native language, I asked not to be   31  with an English-speaking roommate. When I got to my new room, I   32  myself to my new roommate Paolo, a Brazilian（巴西人） the same age as I, whom I was surprised to find playing one of my favorite CDS! In just a few hours, we knew we’d be good friends for the rest of the   33  .      

I left France with many   34  , so when people asked me what my favorite part of the trip was, they are always   35  to hear me talk about my Brazilian friend Paolo and scores of weekdays in class, weeknights on the town, and weekends   36  France we enjoyed together. I love how people   37  seem so different, but end up being so   38  . The most valuable lesson I gained from studying in France wasn’t just to respect the friend people   39  to respect all people, for your next best friend could be just a continent away. I would recommend an exchange program to anyone who wants to experience foreign cultures and gain meaningful  40  .   

1.                A．discuss         B．express         C．a(chǎn)nnounce D．a(chǎn)rgue

 

2.                A．a(chǎn)pproved       B．knew           C．warned   D．denied

 

3.                A．stubborn       B．a(chǎn)nxious         C．universal  D．interesting

 

4.                A．boring         B．upsetting        C．exciting   D．promising

 

5.                A．expected       B．liked           C．doubted  D．feared

 

6.                A．sponsored      B．witnessed       C．greeted  D．supported

 

7.                A．until           B．when           C．since D．while

 

8.                A．move          B．travel          C．walk D．rush

 

9.                A．housekeeper    B．leader          C．roommate D．colleague

 

10.               A．learn          B．a(chǎn)ppreciate      C．speak D．master

 

11.               A．combined       B．fitted          C．involved   D．placed

 

12.               A．a(chǎn)dded         B．introduced      C．devoted   D．a(chǎn)dapted

 

13.               A．term           B．week          C．month D．vocation

 

14.               A．presents        B．suitcase        C．stories    D．dreams

 

15.               A．surprised       B．disturbed       C．embarrassed   D．concerned

 

16.               A．a(chǎn)nalyzing       B．exploring       C．describing D．investigating

 

17.               A．need          B．shall           C．must  D．can

 

18.               A．generous       B．independent     C．similar D．distant

 

19.               A．a(chǎn)nd           B．but            C．or    D．so

 

20.               A．instructions     B．friendships      C．facts  D．data

 

 

查看答案和解析>>

同步練習冊答案