Read the text and mark statements 6‐12 below as T (true) or F (false). On 2 November 1982, the British public turned on their television sets for the
arrival of the nation’s fourth TV station, called Channel 4. They were greeted by the smiling face of local TV news presenter Richard Whiteley, who welcomed them with the words: ‘As the countdown to a new channel ends, a brand new countdown begins.’ And with this sentence, the words and numbers game show ‘Countdown’ was launched. The rules of this new game show were as follows: two contestants faced each other over several rounds of games with letters and with numbers. Finally, there was the Conundrum round, where contestants had to work out the nine‐letter anagram. At the end of the show, the contestant with the highest score won and was invited back the next day to face a new challenger. However, despite the simplicity of the rules, those who watched the early editions of the 30‐minute show, which was on five days a week, could hardly have imagined that it would last any longer than the original seven weeks that had been planned for it. The first contestants and guests were not exactly the most exciting people on television. But luckily for ‘Countdown’, there were enough old people, university students and other people with nothing much to do each afternoon to keep the show alive. When the show began, Carol Vorderman won over fans with her amazing mathematical abilities. ’Countdown’ made a celebrity out of Carol, and these days she’s a familiar face on British TV. Despite her fame, Carol still loyally turned up on ‘Countdown’ each day to turn over the letters and show the contestants how to solve the numbers game until she retired in 2008. Yes, that is correct – nearly 30 years since it began, ‘Countdown’ continues to keep its audience’s brains working every afternoon. In fact, on 3 January 2006, it celebrated its 4,000th show. Other signs of its success include the increase in the length of each program to 45 minutes, the addition of a show on Saturdays and the number of British celebrities who have made an appearance. 6. ‘Countdown’ was the first program ever shown on Channel 4. …………… 7. Every day two new contestants compete to become ‘Countdown’ champion. ………….. 8. Originally only 35 program of ‘Countdown’ were planned. …………… 9. The early shows were popular with working people. …………… 10. Carol Vorderman is no longer involved with the show. …………… 11. These days ‘Countdown’ is on for four and a half hours every week. …………… 12. More and more famous people like turning up on the program