Question

Quantifiers and articles
1. in the short texts below, do two things. firstly, select the correct option for each of
the quantifiers in italics. secondly, fill each gap with the (the definite article) or
nothing (the zero article).

1). there has been a lot of/many
controversy over this result. to be honest, i
don't think it was an amazing achievement that davies won this marathon. it was
hardly a level playing field. she started right at the front of
group of
runners while a few/a little of the other top runners didn't cross
start line
until five minutes after davies. many/much of
top women runners didn't
cross the start line until around the seven-minute mark.
2). until robert le farge mentioned
drugs in his interview with a well
known french magazine journalist, no one had suspected
star cyclist
of being one of the few / little cyclists taking performance-enhancing drugs during this
year's tour de france. his discussion with the journalist and
article that
was published the following week were the reasons why the drugs-testing teams
decided to check him during one of the evening sessions. this is when he was found
guilty and disqualified. it is fair to say that he certainly said too much /too many and
scored a spectacular own goal in giving
interview at all. le farge is
maintaining his innocence and has launched an appeal.

3). by changing the weight limit for athletes entering certain types of competitive events
in the next olympics, the world athletic federation has created a huge problem.
effectively, they have moved the goalposts with only eight months remaining until
start of the olympic competition. for athletes who have been
training for several years to reach
perfect weight for their event,
suddenly their training regimes will have to be changed completely. it also means that
a few /a little of these athletes may have to consider competing in
different weight categories. little / hardly any of the national athletics federations
have reacted positively to this announcement.

4). those teenagers who want to become
professional sportsmen and women
cannot afford to take their eye off the ball for one minute.
pressure
these days to achieve maximum potential at a young age is extremely high.
talented young people need to be discovered by professional trainers and clubs
while they are still young enough to be trained and developed beyond their natural
talent. this means that a lot of/many work has to be done by
schools
and parents to recognise and help this type of talent to develop. if too much / too
many time passes before these youngsters are found, it may be too late.

idioms
2. in the texts in exercise 1, find the idioms that match the meanings given below.
1). to do or say something which has a negative effect, when that was not the intention
2). to lose concentration
3). an unfair situation
4). to change the rules or limits, which makes something more difficult