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    How do you win a Nobel Prize for writing? Here's the secret from a previous winner: make it short, keep it real, and work hard.

Canadian author Alice Munro, 82, was awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in literature. She is known for her short stories about personal relationships of ordinary people, usually women.

    Munro was born into a farming family in Ontario. The family was very poor. Munro did a lot of physical work as a young girl. She decided to be a writer at the age of 12. Now Munro turns her hard childhood into great writing ideas. The story Dear Life, for example, opens with a description of the neighborhood in which Munro grew up. Also, she talks about her poor relationship with her mother in many of her stories, such as Lives of Girls and Women and Friend of My Youth.

    Since she published her first book in 1968, Munro has won many awards, with the Nobel Prize as her biggest honor. But Munro doesn't see herself as a talented(有天赋的) writer.

    “I'm the opposite of a writer with a quick gift. I don't grasp it very easily at all, the‘it' being whatever I'm trying to do,” she said.

    Do you dream of becoming an author while sadly admitting you are not that talented? Munro has a tip for you: use notebooks and write a lot.

    “I have lots of notebooks that contain(包含) this writing,” she said. But it helps her sort out (整理) her mind. “Stories would just be working in my head for so long that when I started to write I was deep into them.”

    Most of us have ever imagined the life on a desert island. We sometimes imagine a desert island to be a sort of paradise(天堂) where the sun always shines. Life there is simple and good. Ripe fruit falls from the trees and you are free to sit around without any work. This is really a beautiful picture, isn't it? However, the other side of the picture is quite the opposite. Life on a desert island is awful. You either starve to death or live like Robinson Crusoe, waiting for a boat which never comes.

    Perhaps there is some truth in both these pictures, but few of us have had the chance to find out. We can only experience it in the story like the following.

    Many years ago, two men spent five days on a coral island and they wished that they could stay there longer. They were driving a badly damaged boat from the Virgin Islands to Miami to have it repaired. During the journey, their boat began to sink(下沉). They quickly put food, matches, and cans of beer into a rubber dinghy(救生筏) and rowed for a few miles across the Caribbean until they arrived at a tiny coral island.

    There were hardly any trees on the island and there was no water, but this did not seem to be a problem. The men collected rainwater in the rubber dinghy. As they had brought a gun with them, they had plenty to eat. They caught lobster and fish every day, and they thought they lived just like a king. Five days later, a tank passed by and saved them. However, they felt sorry that they had to leave.

    Mum gave little Tom ten yuan. Then little Tom went shopping. He got on the bus and sat down next to an old woman. Then he saw the old woman's bag was open. There was ten yuan in it. He quickly looked into his pocket. The money wasn't there now! Little Tom was sure that the old woman was a thief（小偷）. He decided to take back the money from the old woman's bag. So he carefully put his hand into the old woman's bag，took the money and said nothing. Suddenly the old woman shouted，“Where is my money? I can't find it. There is a thief in the bus.” Little Tom felt strange. Then he saw his own ten yuan under his seat. Little Tom is thinking a question now，“Am I a thief ?”

    I'm a girl, Rosie. Racing on the 1,500-meter track (跑道), I'm so tired. I want to stop but a voice is repeating in my head, "No one knows what the result will be. Everything is still possible." Today, I have to fight with myself.

    Nine years ago, when I was a 6-year-old girl, my mother took me on a trip. We went to the foot of a high mountain which she told me that we would climb. I had never done this before and the thought of it made me very happy.

    At the beginning, I was so excited, and climbed fast. But half an hour later, when I was thirsty and tired, I just stopped and sat on the ground, completely silent. My mom came and sat next to me.

She said, "Get up and go on!"

    Crying, I almost shouted, "Never! It's too tiring and I am thirsty. I want to go back home now."

    Patiently she explained, "Listen, my dear. If you try your best, anything is possible. If you don't try, your dream will never come true. You will never know how beautiful the sights look unless you reach the top of the mountain."

    Hearing her words, I stopped crying and started to climb again. Finally I did reach the top of the mountain and enjoyed the fantastic view.

    Today I'm on the racing track. I'm going to keep running because I know it's always valuable. And in the end I made it — I got through the finish line.

    Although it was really difficult and I did not win, I did finish it. "Never stop fighting until you arrive at your destined (命定的) place."