I love music. When I was 16, I formed my first band called “Frog”. At the beginning, we depended     1     playing instruments in the street to earn money. Then we wore false beards pretending to be famous musicians. In addition, we added humorous acts to our performances and played jokes on one another. Soon, our “funny jazz” became famous and we     2     (invite) to perform everywhere. Afterwards, we made a record in a studio. About one million     3     (copy) were sold and we became rich and popular.

Draw inspiration from passion

For many people, the perfect career would be one     1     they do what they love to make a living. But in reality, not many have either the luck or the luxury to do so,     2     (give) financial concerns and other considerations. Cartoonist Lian Zongbo is fully aware     3     the pitfalls (困难), but decided to chase his dream anyway.

After six years of hard work in the industry, Lian was becoming tired of life. “I’d struggled for quite some time at my company. Most of my work was childish.     4    , I planned to do something I was really into.” the 36-year-old says. In 2016, he had the idea of     5     (combine) his two interests of basketball and drawing. Lian started drawing     6     (illustrate) based on the NBA and shared them on social media platforms, but little feedback initially dampened his enthusiasm. “I would tag many big sports accounts, and it seemed fruitless, which motivated me to try     7     (hard), because I was too proud     8     (admit) failure,” he said, jokingly.

In January 2017, about a year after he started, he     9     (receive) the message on his Instagram account that would change his life forever. Sent by Conscious Basketball,     10     team of artists based in the United States that produces art related to the sport, the message invited Lian to display his work at art shows in the US.