Question

【题目】For the rest of March, a disease will sweep across the US. It will keep kids home from school. _【1】__ Employees will suddenly lose their ability to concentrate.

The disease, known as “March Madness”, refers to the yearly 65-team US men’s college basketball tournament(锦标赛). _【2】__ Teams compete against each other in a single-elimination(单局淘汰) tournament that eventually crowns a national champion.

_【3】__ The fun comes partly from guessing the winners for every game. Friends compete against friends. Husbands against wives. Colleagues against bosses.

Big-name schools are usually favored to advance into the tournament. But each year there are dark horses from little-known universities. This adds to the madness. Watching a team from a school with 3,000 students beat a team from a school with 30,000, for many Americans, is an exciting experience. Two years ago, the little-known George Mason University was one of the final teams. __【4】__

College basketball players are not paid, so the game is more about making a name for their university and themselves. _【5】_ About $4 billion will be spent gambling on the event. According to Media Life magazine, the event will bring in $500 million in advertising income this year, topping the post-season income of every US professional league, including that of the NBA.

A. Nearly 20 million Americans will find themselves prisoners of basketball festival Madness.

B. The players will go all out for the games.

C. But that doesn’t mean money isn’t involved.

D. College students will ignore piles of homework.

E. People are willing to spend more money on watching it.

F. It begins on March 15 and lasts through the beginning of April.

G. Many people had never even heard of the university before the tournament.

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】D

【2】F

【3】A

【4】G

【5】C

【解析】

试题分析: 美国一年一度的大学生篮球联赛影响力非常大，人们常拿比赛来进行赌博，虽然运动员没有酬劳，但比赛带来的广告收益可达50亿之多。

【1】D考查对上下文语境的理解。根据“It will keep kids home from school... Employees will suddenly lose their ability to concentrate.”可知，这种“疾病”的影响很广，孩子不愿上学，大学生无视他们的作业，员工无心工作，故选 D（大学生会忽视成堆的作业。）

【2】F考查对上下文语境的理解。根据“The disease, known as “March Madness”, refers to the yearly 65-team US men’s college basketball tournament.”可知，这种“疾病”实际上是全美大学生篮球赛，空白处介绍的是全美大学生篮球赛的时间，所以这里选F（3月15号到4月初。）与上下文一致。

【3】A考查对上下文语境的理解。根据“Friends compete against friends. Colleagues against bosses.”可知，人们互相猜测谁是赢家，朋友之间互相打赌，夫妻之间、同事和老板之间互相打赌，故选A（ 有近2千万的美国人会发现自己对了篮球节的疯狂态度。）与上下文一致。

【4】G 考查对上下文语境的理解。根据“the little-known George Mason University”可知，George Mason University在比赛前一点也不出名，故选G（很多人在联赛钱都没有听说过这个大学。）与上下文一致。

【5】C 考查对上下文语境的理解。根据“College basketball players are not paid, ...About $ 4 billion will be spent gambling (赌) on the event... the event will bring in $ 500 million in advertising income this year,”可知，篮球运动员没有报酬，但这并非意味着比赛与钱无关。花在赌博上的就有40亿，广告收入也达到了50亿。故选C（但这并非意味着比赛与钱无关 。）与上下文一致。