The Winter Olympics proved no match for television's gold-medal winner, "American Idol". Fox's unbelievable successful contest crashed the Olympics in head-to-head competition on Tuesday night, 27 million viewers to 16.1 million, according to Nielsen Media Research.
The Olympics recovered a bit after "Idol" went off the air, but its overall audience of 18.6 million was the least-watched winter Olympics telecast since Nagano's closing ceremonies in 1998, Nielsen said.
Since its opening on Friday, the Turin games have been running well below the 2002 Salt Lake City games in viewership interest. Much of that was expected, but Tuesday's rating was the first alarming sign for NBC that increased TV competition has taken a toll.
"The competition from 'Idol' is heavier than the Olympics has ever seen," said NBC Sports spokeswoman Alana Russo.
It doesn't figure to get any easier, with "Idol" and ABC's "Lost" on the air Wednesday. CBS' "Survivor" and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" offer more competition on Thursday.
Even figure skating, the most popular winter Olympics sport for viewers, didn't help much on Tuesday. NBC filled about two-thirds of the hour during which it competed with "American Idol" with tape of the men's figure-skating competition.
Through five nights of Olympics coverage, NBC's average prime time rating is 12.7 ( a rating point represents 1,102, 000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 110.2 million TV homes). NBC said before the games started that it had promised its advertisers a rating of between 12 and 14. If it slips below that, NBC will have to make it up to advertisers with free commercial time.
" ‘American Idol' is clearly a phenomenon," said Randy Falco, president of the NBC Universal Television Group. "But we expected it and are tracking fight where we planned to be at this point." Between NBC and its networks, about 65 percent of the nation's television homes have tuned in at least some of the games.
【小题1】How many viewers watched the Winter Olympics on Tuesday night?

短文改错

此题要求改正所给短文中的错误。对标有题号的每一行作出判断：如无错误，在该行右边横线上画一个勾（√）；如有错误（每行只有一个错误），则改正：

注意：原行没有错的不要改。

The other day my brother Tom was beginning his               1. _______

    motorbike then our neighbor， Mary came out and asked        2. _______

    him if he was going near the station. So he offered her a lift.

    She got at the back of the motorbike and                     3. _______

    they drove away. Just before they reached to the station     4. _______

    a policeman waved to them to stop. "Excuse me， sir，" he said.

    "You are not sitting on that motorbike properly."

"What's matter with the way I'm sitting？" my brother       5. _______

     asked in surprise. "Not you，sir. It's a young lady，" said 6. _______

     the policeman. "In this country side-saddle（偏座） is not  7. _______

     permitted when one ride a motorbike." Mary made an excuse   8. _______

     that she was from Italy， where it isn't considering to     9. _______

     break the law when people take the side-saddle.

     The policeman shook head and drove away.                    10. ______

I’ve spent most of my career as a traveling salesman, and so I know that    1    is an occupational disease. But one year, my    2    gave me the cure for my homesickness.

It had black bright eyes, a red bow tie and orange feet--- a stuffed penguin (企鹅) that   3    about five inches tall. Attached to its left wing    4    a little sign with the hand-painted declaration “ I Love My Dad!”. I immediately   5    the penguin on my table.

On my next trip, I put the   6    in my suitcase. That night when I called home, my daughter Jeanine was    7    because the penguin had disappeared. “Honey, he’s here with me,” I explained, “ I brought him    8  ”.

   9   , the penguin came with me --- as necessary as my briefcase. And we     10    along the way. In Albuquerque, I checked into a    11   , dropped my bag and ran to a meeting. When I returned, the maid had    12    the bed and stood the penguin on the pillow.

One night, I discovered the penguin    13   , and after a mad phone call, I learned I’d    14    it in my previous hotel room,    15    it had been rescued by a maid. I       16      a hundred miles to get it, and when I arrived at midnight, the penguin was waiting at the front desk. In the hotel lobby (大厅), other tired business travelers were    17      at the reunion of my penguin and me --- I think with a touch of    18   .

Jeanine is in college now, and I don’t travel    19   . The penguin sits on my table, a reminder that love is a wonderful traveling companion. All those years on    20   , it was the one thing I never left home without.

1.A. cold            B. hunger              C. loneliness      D. fever

2.. A. boy               B. daughter        C. friend           D. mother

3.A. stood               B. lay                 C. jumped           D. climbed

4. A. wrote          B. turned          C. was                  D. had

5.. A. threw             B. lost            C. gave             D. placed

6.. A. bear              B. penguin         C. dog                  D. rabbit

7. A. upset              B. happy           C. glad             D. excited

8. A. up             B. off                 C. along            D. down

9. A. From now on    B. In the future   C. In future            D. From then on

10. A. had friends      B. had friend      C. made friends  D. made friend

11.A. school         B. hotel           C. shop             D. supermarket

12. A. given             B. turned              C. made             D. carried

13.A. sleeping           B. going           C. living           D. missing

14.A. forget         B. left            C. ordered              D. sent

15.A. there              B. when            C. where            D. how

16. A. ran               B. walked              C. hurried              D. drove

17.A. surprised          B. frightened          C. looked          D. laughed

18. A. anger         B. envy            C. sadness          D. illness

19.A. as many       B. as seldom      C. so little            D. as much

20.A. the hotel          B. the meeting         C. the road             D. the house

阅读下面短文，从短文后所给各题的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Jenna, a popular girl from Westwood Middle School, had graduated first in her class and was ready for new 1 in high school.
2, high school was different. In the first week, Jenna went to tryouts(选拔赛) for cheerleaders(拉拉队队员). She was competing against very talented girls, and she knew it would be 3 for her to be selected. Two hours later, the 4 read a list of the girls for a second tryout. Her heart 5 as the list ended without her name. Feeling 6, she walked home carrying her schoolbag full of homework.
Arriving home, she started with math. She had always been a good math student, but now she was 7. She moved on to English and history, and was 8 to find that she didn’t have any trouble with those subjects. Feeling better, she decided not to 9 math for the time being.
The next day Jenna went to see Mrs. Biden about being on the school 10. Mrs. Biden wasn’t as 11 as Jenna. “I’m sorry, but we have enough 12 for the newspaper already. Come back next year and we’ll talk then.” Jenna smiled 13 and left. “Why is high school so 14?” she sighed.
Later in 15 class, Jenna devoted herself to figuring out the problems that had given her so much 16. By the end of class, she understood how to get them right. As she gathered her books, Jenna decided she’d continue to try to 17 at her new school. She wasn’t sure if she’d succeed, but she knew she had to 18. High school was just as her mom had said: “You will feel like a small fish in a big pond 19a big fish in a small pond. The challenge is to become the 20 fish you can be.”  

After several days’ warm weather around the New Year’s Day，a strong cold wave with a sandstorm from Mongolia attacked Tianjin Sunday afternoon.

From 3 o’clock p.m.，the strong cold wave from Mongolia engulfed（吞没）most areas of North China and the biggest wind-force was 7.Tianjin also suffered this year’s first sandstorm with the cold wind whistling.The sky became dusky and the air was permeated with sand.By 11 o’clock at night，the wind became weaker and the sandstorm died down.From Monday morning，the northern areas had a big drop in temperature.It is learned that flu and the infection of the upper respiratory tract are easy to be infected due to the severe pollution by dust in the air.Relevant experts remind residents to pay attention to their health care.

1.The underlined word“permeated”most probably means______.

A.cleared　　　　　　B.filled　　　　　　 C.blowing　　　　　　 D.replaced

2.We learn that ______from the passage.

A.sandstorms result in the fall of temperature

B.we can easily get infected by the dusty air

C.it is usually warmer before sandstorms come

D.sandstorms usually come around the New Year’s Day