Some people think that success is only for those with talent or those who grow up in the right family, and others believe that success mostly comes down to luck. I’m not going to say luck, talent, and conditions are not important because they really are. Some people are born into the right family while others are born with great abilities, and that’s just how life is.

However, to succeed in life, one first needs to set a goal and then gradually put it into practice. What’s more, in order to get really good at something, one needs to spend at least 10,000 hours studying and practising. To become great at certain things, it’ll require even more time, the time that most people won’t put in.

This is a big reason why many successful people advise you to do something you love. If you don’t enjoy what you do, it is going to feel like great pain and will probably make you give up well before you ever become good at it.

When you see people showing some great skills or having achieved great success, you know that they have put in a huge part of their life to get there at a huge cost. It’s sometimes easy to think they got lucky or they were born with some unusual talent, but thinking that way does you no good，and there’s a huge chance that you’re wrong anyway.

Whatever you do, if you want to become great at it, you need to work day in and day out, with all your heart and over a long period of time. If you’re not willing to put in the time and work, don’t expect to receive any rewards(回报). Time and hard work won’t make sure that you will get the great success you may want, but it will make sure that you will become really good at whatever it is you put all that work into.

At my primary school, I was one of the smartest kids there. I never studied, but always got perfect scores. I thought I was born clever. At least I believed so. I was also a prodigy in music according to myself. I could sing better than everyone else in my school. I was pretty sure that once I got to the seventh grade, everyone would be surprised by me.

    But actually, they weren’t.

    When I arrived at my new class, I couldn’t wait to show everyone what I could do. However, there was always someone else who could do better that me. My grades began to get worse. I needed to actually study for my tests. I believed I wasn’t smart. I believed I wasn’t talented. I believed I was a failure.

    Over the next two years, I had to work very hard. Every prize for the singing competition was given to me for hard work and effort. Grades were still very low but improving little by little. I worked really hard. However, I was never the best at everything.

    I haven’t realized until recently that I really don’t have to be the best at everything. I was too hard on myself. In fact, when I did badly in a test, my classmates never laughed at me.

    No one is perfect. There will probably always be someone better than me at something. Anyway, there are about seven billion people in this world. I will never be the number one at everything, and that’s really OK.

Once upon a time there was a little boy who became very ill. He had to spend all day in bed, unable to move. Because other children werenˈt allowed to come near him, he felt  (1)  and blue.

There wasnˈt much he could do except look out of the window. Time passed, and his feeling of hopelessness just  (2)  , until one day he saw something strange in the window. It was a bird eating a sausage sandwich. The bird came in, said "good afternoon" to the boy, turned around, and left.

Of course, the boy was very surprised. He was still trying to  (3)  what had happened, when outside his window he saw a monkey blowing up a balloon. After a while, as more and more crazylooking characters  (4)  outside the window, he laughed happily.   (5)  when seeing a pig playing the guitar or a dog wearing a pair of glasses and singing. The little boy didnˈt tell anyone about this  (6)  , who would have believed him? Even so, those strange characters ended up putting joy back in his   (7)  , and in his body. Before long, his health had improved so much that he was able to go back to school again.

There he got to talk to his friends, and told them all the  (8)  things he had seen. While talking, he saw something sticking（伸出）out of his best friendˈs school bag. The boy asked him what it was, and finally his friend had to  (9)  him what was in the bag.

There, inside, were all the fancy-dress suits and disguises（伪装）that his best friend had been using to try to  (10)  the little boy up!

From that day on, the little boy always did his best to make sure that no one felt sad and alone.

“Everything happens for the best,” my mother said whenever things weren’t going my way. “Don’t worry, one day your luck will change.” Mother was right, as I discovered after I had finished my college education. I had decided to try for a job in radio. One day, I wanted to host(主持) a sports program. I went to Chicago and knocked on the door of every station. But I got turned down every time.

In one station, a kind lady said my problem was that I hadn’t got enough experience. “Get some work with a small station and work your way up,” she said.

I went back home. I couldn’t get a job there, either. Then my dad told me a businessman had opened a store and needed someone to help him. But again, I didn’t get the job.

I felt really down. “Your luck will change,” Mom said to me. Dad lent me the car to help me to look for my job. I tried another radio station in Iowa. But the owner, a nice man, told me he had already had someone.

As I left his office, I asked, “How can someone be a sports announcer(播音员) if he can’t get a job in a radio station?”

I was waiting for the lift when I heard the man call. “ What did you mean? Do you know anything about football?” He put me in front of a microphone and asked me to try to imagine that I was giving my opinion on a football game, I succeeded.

On my way home, Mom’s words came back to me, “One day your luck will change, Son. And when it happens, it’ll feel doubly(加倍的) good because of all the hard work you’ve had.” At that moment I knew what just what she meant.

What’s the writer’s ideal(理想的) job?

Why didn’t the writer get the job in Chicago?

Which of the following is true according to the article?

The sentence “But I got turned down every time.” means “______”

What’s the best title of this passage?