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

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

Nearly 20 million Americans will find themselves prisoners of basketball festival madness. The fun comes partly from guessing the winners for every game. Friends compete against friends.   【小题3】   Colleagues against bosses.

Big­name schools are usually favored to advance into the tournament. But each year there are dark horses from little­known 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 little­known George Mason University was one of the final four teams. 【小题4】

College basketball players are not paid, so the game is more about making a name for their university and themselves. 【小题5】   About $4 billion will be spent gambling (赌) 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.