单选题

TV Games Shows

One of the most fascinating things about television is the size of the audience. A novel can be on the "best sellers" list with a sale of fewer than 100,000 copies, but a popular TV show might have 70 million TV viewers. TV can make anything or anyone well known, overnight.
This is the principle behind "quiz" or "game" shows, which put ordinary people on TV to play a game for the prize and money. A quiz show can make anyone a star, and it can give away thousands of dollars just for fun. But all of this money can create problems. For instance, in the 1950s, quiz shows were very popular in the U. S. and almost everyone watched them. Charles Van Doren, an English instructor, became rich and famous after winning money on several shows. He even had a career as a television personality. But one of the losers proved that Charles Van Doren was cheating. It turned out that the show"s producers, who were pulling the strings, gave the answers to the most popular contestants beforehand. Why? Because if the audience didn"t like the person who won the game, they turned the show off. Based on his story, a movie under the title "Quiz Show" is on 40 years later.
Charles Van Doren is no longer involved with TV. But game shows are still here, though they aren"t taken as seriously. In fact, some of them try to be as ridiculous as possible. There are shows that send strangers on vacation trips together, or that try to cause newly-married couples to fight on TV, or that punish losers by humiliating them. The entertainment now is to see what people will do just to be on TV. People still win money, but the real prize is to be in front of an audience of millions.

单选题 TV can make a beggar world-famous overnight.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】根据关键词world-famous，overnight定位到文中第一段，该段最后一句讲到“电视可以使任何事物任何人一夜成名”(TV can make anything or anyone well known overnight.)。由此可见题干的表述“电视可以使一个乞丐一夜成名”是正确的，所以选A。

单选题 The principle behind "quiz" or "game" shows is to put ordinary people on TV to play a game for prizes and money.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】根据关键词principle找到关键句，即第二段第一句话，其中this指代的是前面的内容，可见“电视智力比赛”背后运作的原理指的是“TV can make anything or anyone well known overnight”，而“让普通人上电视参加有奖比赛”是对“电视智力比赛”的解释说明，而不是其运作原理。所以本题的描述是错误的，选B。

单选题 Prizes and money are usually provided by TV stars and large companies.

单选题 One of the TV personalities, Charles Van Doren was proved to be cheating by persuading the Show"s producers to give him the answers beforehand.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】根据题干中的人名Charles Van Doren定位到第二段的中间部分，由倒数第四句“the show"s producers, who were pulling the strings, gave the answers to the most popular contestants beforehand”可知，为了吸引观众，节目制片人提前主动把答案告诉了查尔斯·范多伦，而不是“说服节目制片人事先把答案告诉了他”。所以本题的表述是错误的，选B。

单选题 The huge scandal of cheating in TV games shows was not exposed until 40 years later in the movie "Quiz Show".

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】根据关键词the movie“Quiz Show”定位到第二段最后两句话。其中第二段的中间部分提到“one of the losers proved that Chatles Van Doren was cheating”，可见查尔斯·范多伦作弊的丑闻已经被当时一位比赛失败者揭发出来了；再根据最后一句话可知，《智力竞赛》这部电影是根据这个故事在40年后才开始的。所以此题的描述“在‘电视智力竞赛’中作弊的丑闻直到40年后的《智力竞赛》这部电影中才被揭露出来”是错误的，选B。

单选题 Nowadays game shows are not treated as seriously as they used to be.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】根据关键词treat，seriously定位到第三段第二句话“But game shows are still here, though they aren"t taken as seriously”，其中take as(把……看作是……；把……当作是……)与treat的意思一样。所以此题的描述“现在，人们不再像以前那样认真对待‘电视智力竞赛’节目”是正确的，选A。