Read the following passage and fill in each blank with one
word. Choose the correct word in one of the following three ways: according to
the context, by using the correct form of the given word, or by using the given
letters of the word. Remember to write the answers on the answer sheet.
To its fans, it is addictive. To the media, it is a promising
money-maker. Sudoku, an old puzzle long popular in Japan is fast ga
(66) popularity the world over. In Britain, a sudoku book is
a bestseller and national newspapers are competing (67)
(feverish) to publish the most, and the most fiendish, puzzles. (68)
, the puzzle is being published in newspapers from Australia to
Croatia to America. Even the New York Times is considering intr (69)
sudoku in its Sunday magazine, alongside its venerated
crossword. The game’s ap (70) is that its
rules are as simple as its solution is complex. On a board of nine-by-nine sq
(71) most of them empty, players must fill in each one
(72) a number so that each row ( left to right), column (
top to bottom) and block ( in bold lines) (73) 1 to 9.
Advanced ver (74) use bigger boards or add letters from the
alphabet. Sudoku--the Japanese word combines " number" and
" single"--seems perfectly suited (75) modern times, a
puzzle for an era when people are more nu (76) than
literate. And like globalism itself, sudoku transcends borders by (77)
(require) no translation. The overall business of
puzzles is hard to measure (78) revenues in America from
magazines, syndicated newspaper sales, books, and online and phone services are
almost $ 200m annually. The New York Times (79) millions of
dollars a year from its crosswords and hundreds of thousands from a special
phone service that provides hi (80) . Over 30,000 people pay
$ 35 a year for the newspaper’s e-mail version.