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(停滞不前), 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 me 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 Believing my novel could not be published, I put it aside.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(合同) of the publisher—to be a published writer—is unbelievably rewarding.

【小题1】Why did the author decide to write a novel?

A．Because she hated her previous jobs.

B．Because her parents and friends had encouraged her to do so.

C．Because she wanted to pursue her own dream of writing a novel.

D．Because she graduated from university with a good degree in English Literature.

【小题2】What does the underlined sentence in paragraph 3 mean?

A．She became less stubborn.

B．She became more stubborn.

C．She suddenly lost confidence.

D．She gradually gained confidence.

【小题3】Who agreed to publish the author’s first novel?

A．An agent who she signed with.

B．A rights assistant she once worked with.

C．An agent who advised her to send her novel out to agents.

D．A publisher who she once worked for as a rights assistant.

【小题4】Which of the following words can best describe the author’s experience as a writer?

A．Tough but rewarding.	B．Interesting and smooth.
C．Difficult but thrilling.	D．Complicated and fruitless.