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 situations these people are dreaming of wealth and fame, not the long hours alone at a computer. “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, I had no chance of being successful 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 type-writer and felt like a real 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 Shadowland of hope, and anyone with dream must learn to live there.

1．The passage is meant to ________.

       A．warn young people of the hardship 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 gain wealth and fame

       D．encourage young people to make efforts to be a writer

2．What can be concluded from the passage?

       A．Real writers often find their work interesting and rewarding.

       B．A writer's success depends on luck rather than on effort.

       C．Famous writers usually live in the state of being poor and lonely.

       D．The chances for a writer to become successful are small.

3．The underlined sentence “people who die wondering, what if?” refers to those ________.

       A．who think too much of dark side of life

       B．who regret giving up their job halfway

       C．who think a lot without making a decision

       D．who are full of imagination even upon death

4．“Shadowland” in the last sentence refers to ________.

       A．the wonderland one often dream about

       B．the bright future that one is looking forward to

       C．the uncertainty before one's final goal is reached

       D．a world that exists only in one's imagination