Question

What Is Success The Oxford English Dictionary defines（定義） the word success as "the fact that you have achieved something that you want and have been trying to do or get; the fact of becoming rich or famous or of getting a high social position". Some rankings（排行榜） put Albert Einstein, Michael Jackson, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs as among the most successful people in the world. What Michael Jackson did for music is the same as what Albert Einstein did for physics. All of them do have greatly influenced the industries or media to which they belonged. J.K.Rowling, the author of the famous Harry Potter novels. She created a magical world that sold more than 500 million books and became hit movies. With an estimated（估算的） net worth of ﹩650 million in 2017, she certainly goes for the dictionary definition of success, but for her it didn't come easy. Having no job, raising her child alone, she was refused by publishers about a dozen times before one took a chance on her. This is what people love: the rags-to-riches success story.

In comparison with Rowling, the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh practically suffered a lot in life to make ends meet. When he was alive, he only sold one painting even though he created more than 2,000 works of art. Van Gogh died when he was 37 years old and with very little money to his name. However, in 1990, his painting Portrait of Dr.Gachet sold for﹩82.5 million, which has a value today of around﹩137 million. So, the question is: Is Van Gogh considered successful even though he died poor?

Besides the dictionary definitions, different people have competing ideas of what success really means. Often times the most agree on the same characteristics that make a person a success. A financial magazine named Inc. points to the following qualities that make a person successful: Drive, Confidence, Patience, Honesty, Passion…

Success isn't always about getting a lot of money or fans, even though those are the stories we see most often. There are other people who we may not know well, but who have achieved success in their own right. One perfect example is mothers. They spent days, months, and years teaching their children from birth to young adulthood. If a child grows up to be a kind, helpful, thoughtful and considerate adult, can the mother consider herself a success?

Perhaps success really is subjective, and it's up to people to define it for themselves. However, one thing seems to be in complete agreement when we search for the definition and can be best summed up by Steve Jobs, who said, "If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time."

1.The word " rags-to-riches" in Paragraph 2 probably means " ______ ".

A.winning success from luck

B.turning talent into treasure

C.gaining money from honor

D.rising from poorness to wealth

2.The writer mentions Vincent van Gogh to show that ______ .

A.success is through loneliness

B.success is beyond time and space

C.success is to take the life-changing opportunity

D.success is to achieve something you want and try

3.What can we learn from the passage?

A.Most successes happen overnight if we look closely.

B.What makes people successful is the strong mind and body.

C.A child growing to be a gentle adult can be the mother's success.

D.Albert Einstein makes greater achievement than Michael Jackson.

4.The writer probably agrees that people should ______ .

A.reorder the rankings of the world's most successful people

B.reach an agreement of what makes a person success

C.recognize and appreciate different kinds of success

D.drive themselves to set great goals for success

Answer 1