Except in times of ________, we would scarcely allow public officials to declare states of emergency that replace some normal rules with those more ________to extraordinary circumstances.
句意：除了在灾难发生的时候，我们几乎不允许政府官员宣布紧急状态，取代一些正常的规则，而这些规则与特殊情况的关系更为密切。catastrophe大灾难；大祸。 germane有密切关系的；贴切的。因此，本题的正确答案是B。