'Rode NT-USB' intermediate microphone, and great alternative to AT2020USB, in case you're not too fond of the high frequency bump, and want to sound more natural. It's my mic of choice, due to it being sharper (like Sennheiser), which accentuates the voice a bit more. 'Audio Technica AT2020USB' for intermediate semi professional sound, a good microphone, and if you know a thing or two about audio, you could use this one in pro studios as well. 'Blue Microphones Yeti', as a beginner-intermediate, best bang for the buck, has better background noise cancellation.

'Blue Snowball' as a starters microphone on a budget. There are lots of microphones you can choose from. If, OTOH you are recording a dramatic reading of something that was happening mid-nineteenth century, on an estate in English countryside, perhaps sounds of busy traffic, honking, emergency sirens, are not what the listener expects. If it's a technical/scientific article, for example, it's the information and not the ambiance the listener is after. Whether occasional modern noises in the final recording are OK, I believe, depends very much on what you are recording.

Loud sounds occurring while you record, usually do not last long, and you can simply re-record the phrase when you discover that there is a sound that you don't care to keep. Low-frequency rumble can be cleaned out from the recording by applying a high-pass filter. A better solution that I use is to record when the outside noises are at the minimum (late night). Many of those methods are prohibitively expensive or cumbersome, though. There are methods of reducing the amount of noise permeating into your recording area from outside, like special blankets that can be hung over your windows and doors, or even use of specially constructed audio booths.

Do pop filters reduce background noise