英语四级仔细阅读篇幅较短、题型相对容易，考生容易拿分，所以对这一部分的复习一定不能松懈，尽管距离考试还有几个月的时间，但是备考是一个漫长的过程，一定不要心存幻想，等着时间不够了再来着手复习，要有未雨绸缪的思想来面对四六级考试，所以从现在起考生就要坚持练习，下面是一篇 英语四级阅读练习，快来练练吧。

　　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 hours alone at 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 writer (自由撰稿者), 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 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 Shadow land of hope, and anyone with a dream must learn to live there.

【责任编辑：屈应兰】