A teenager watches a creator speak about success with bright eyes and perfect timing. In another video, a young entrepreneur turns failure i...

A teenager watches a creator speak about success with bright eyes and perfect timing. In another video, a young entrepreneur turns failure into a polished lesson, neat enough to fit inside a minute. By the time the phone is put down, ambition has already been stirred. What once grew slowly through teachers, books, or private reflection now often arrives through visibility. A future feels desirable not simply because it is meaningful, but because someone has made it look luminous on screen.

For many young people, career imagination is increasingly shaped by stories they can see, not only by formal advice or labour market data. That shift is not shallow by nature. For students with little guidance, public figures can widen the map of what seems possible. A life once hidden by geography, class, or limited exposure may suddenly come into view. In that sense, influence can do something generous. It can place new language around dreams people had felt but could not yet name.

The difficulty lies elsewhere. A visible path is not always a solid one. When clear career guidance is weak, polished stories begin to carry more authority than they should. A job becomes an image. A calling becomes a mood. Hard years of training, boredom, doubt, and repetition are pushed to the edges, while confidence takes center stage. That is where the line sharpens. Raising awareness gives people a broader sense of possibility. Exploiting longing sells aspiration in a form too edited to be trusted.

No one should be mocked for wanting examples to follow. Human beings have always borrowed courage from other lives. The real question is what kind of example deserves belief. Probably not the loudest one, nor the most varnished. More often, the trustworthy voice is the one that leaves the rough edges in place, showing not only the shine of arrival but the long, uneven road beneath it. Influence may awaken desire. Direction asks for something deeper.

[Adapted from recent World Economic Forum reporting on youth careers and aspirations]

Question 23. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in paragraphs 1 and 2 as a way public figures may shape young people’s career imagination?

A. They can make certain futures look attractive through visible success stories.

B. They can help students with little guidance imagine lives once outside their view.

C. They can give language to ambitions that some young people had not yet clearly expressed.

D. They can provide more reliable labour market data than formal career advisors.

Question 24. The word “stirred” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to __________.

A. shaken        B. encouraged        C. awakened        D. shaped

Question 25. The word “varnished” in paragraph 4 is OPPOSITE in meaning to __________.

A. polished        B. smooth        C. raw        D. refined

Question 26. The word “It” in paragraph 2 refers to __________.

A. influence        B. that sense        C. a life once hidden        D. public guidance

Question 27. Which of the following best paraphrases the underlined sentence in paragraph 3?

A. Helpful influence expands what people believe they might pursue, while manipulative influence markets ambition through stories made unreal by too much editing.

B. Public inspiration becomes harmful only when it presents too many possible careers for young people to consider carefully.

C. The main problem with online career content is that it discourages desire and leaves students with fewer goals than before.

D. When aspiration is communicated clearly online, it usually becomes more accurate and therefore easier for young people to trust.

Question 28. Which of the following is TRUE according to paragraph 4?

A. The most convincing examples are usually those that present success in a polished and uninterrupted form.

B. A believable example often keeps visible the hardship and imperfection behind achievement.

C. People tend to follow examples only when those examples remove uncertainty from ambition.

D. What makes an example trustworthy is its ability to turn desire into immediate direction.

Question 29. Which paragraph focuses on the risk of confusing genuine career awareness with aspiration packaged for emotional effect?

A. Paragraph 1        B. Paragraph 2        C. Paragraph 3        D. Paragraph 4

Question 30. In which paragraph does the author suggest that following someone else’s example is a natural human behavior?

A. Paragraph 1        B. Paragraph 2        C. Paragraph 3        D. Paragraph 4