7 Reading Exam

PART 1
Read the article about success in life. For questions 1–6, choose the best option, a, b, c, or d. Question 0 is
the example.

0 The writer says that many people who are writing books…
a feel that they have a good chance of gaining success.
b have been given the idea their writing is good.
c are not motivated by the desire for fame and fortune.
d become disappointed by their lack of success.
1 The writer says that in the performing arts, many people…
a reject opportunities for certain kinds of work.
b want to equal the achievements of other people.
c only want to be involved for a short period of their lives.
d gain little or no enjoyment from their activities.
2 The writer says that in sport…
a people who are successful fear that they will soon be
considered failures.
b different people react to success in different ways.
c it is particularly difficult to say what constitutes success.
d what most people would consider success may not be
regarded as success.
3 The writer says that in the business world…
a it is becoming increasingly hard to know what people mean by
success.
b a variety of factors prevent businesses from succeeding.
c profit continues to be the main basis for considering a
business a success.
d it is now possible to be considered successful but not do well
financially.
4 The writer mentions famous business people who…
a justify their fame as being for good business reasons.
b are surprised when they gain recognition outside the business
world.
c are not actually as successful in business as they appear to be.
d would prefer not to get as much attention as they do.
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5 The writer uses lawyers and chefs as examples of people who…

a see themselves differently from how others see them.
b are motivated only by the desire for recognition and wealth.
c conform to his theories about what is generally considered
success.
d constantly want to achieve higher levels of success.
6 In the final paragraph, the writer points out a problem for people
caused by…
a higher expectations of life.
b being considered successful.
c not sharing the views of others.
d not wanting to be successful.

SENTENCE 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
OPTION a D A C A C A
 Reading Exam
7

PART 1
What is success?
What do people mean when they talk about ‘success’? The word itself has never been seen more
regularly. It’s a concept that concerns many in their working lives, their personal lives, even in their
hobbies, but what really constitutes ‘success’? It means a whole host of different things to different
people, but more than anything else it usually means fame or money.
Look at the arts, for example. In every facet of that world, there are ever-increasing numbers of
people – not all of them young – who are trying to ‘succeed’. It has been said that ‘everyone has a
book inside them’ and certainly a lot of people out there are trying to prove the wisdom of this
statement, inundating publishers with their efforts. Why? Often because, inspired either by the kind
of thing that’s in the bestseller lists or by an overwhelming desire to ‘express themselves’, or both,
they think they can write a bestseller, with the income and recognition that comes with that.
The same goes for the performing arts. Stage schools, drama courses, colleges are all turning out a
positive flood of aspiring performers and most of them aren’t doing it so that they can appear in an
obscure play in an obscure theatre for the love of their art. Inspired by the parade of fleeting
celebrities that passes before them on TV, they want to be in the latest high-profile musical, the
most watched soap opera, the popular TV show or film. However much they may enjoy and gain
personal fulfilment from their particular area of activity, it’s fame and fortune that’s the real
inspiration. The sight of others getting those things is what propels them on, the promise of those
twin achievements the real motivation.
In sport, success can usually be defined as ‘winning’, and so it’s not simply a question of fame and
fortune. In some sports, people can acquire a reasonably high level of fame, and a high level of
income to go with it, but not be defined as ‘successful’, either by themselves or others. Look at
football management, for example. Extremely well-paid managers, known to the public just as much
as any player, get sacked or lose their jobs for not winning championships or trophies. They might
even lose their jobs for coming second, such are the expectations of club owners and fans. And so,
someone who is at the very top of their profession, managing a leading club, wealthy and well-
known, is deemed a failure.
In business, money is inevitably the driver; a business that doesn’t make money isn’t going to
survive for long, and so there can be no other determiner of success than finance. That’s not the
whole story of course – aspects such as innovation, business culture, impact on the local
community, and a host of others can be considered areas in which ‘success’ is important. But the
simple fact is that none of these things can happen without financial success.
Fame, however, isn’t an integral part of success in business. Most successful business people are
wholly unknown to the general public, though of course they are well-known within their own
sphere. There are exceptions to this, business people who court publicity via such things as TV
appearances or regular appearances in the news media and magazines. Such people want fame as
well as money, though they would argue that the PR campaigns that place them in the public eye are
also a way of promoting their businesses, and therefore motivated by financial success too. It’s all
part of the same aim.
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All of this begs the question: is it possible for someone to be considered a success without a degree
of fame and fortune? Well, yes obviously, as there are plenty of people who are described as ‘a
successful lawyer’ or ‘a successful chef’ but who are unknown outside their own immediate
colleagues or peers, and who do not have a massive amount of wealth. Nevertheless, even in these
cases, the twin elements of recognition and money are the fundamental reasons for calling someone
successful. These people may not be among the super-rich and they certainly do not have anything
that could be described as fame. But they are recognized by others within their professions as having
made significant achievements and they ‘do well’ financially compared to the rest of the population.
To what extent do notions of ‘success’ matter to people in general? Perhaps to a greater degree than
they did in the past, when the vast majority were content doing an ‘ordinary’ job and ‘get through
life’. Nowadays, much more is made of the idea of succeeding and so a lot more people measure
themselves and their achievements against the twin notions of recognition and financial gain. This
may well have led to a greater degree of dissatisfaction among people who in the past may have been
entirely satisfied by their lot in life.

7 Reading Exam 7 ‒ Answer Key

PART 1
1b
2d
3c
4a
5c
6a