单选题 Directions:
Read the following text. Choose the best word or phrase for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on ANSWER SHEET 1.
For the {{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}} {{/U}}month, mysterious fails of large chunks of ice (冰雹) {{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}rained down on Spain and Italy. Juana Sanchez, a 70-year-old woman in Almeria, southern Spain, was knocked {{U}} {{U}} 3 {{/U}} {{/U}}when she was struck on the shoulder by a falling ice chunk {{U}} {{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}she walked in a street {{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}}her home. On January 12, just about 200 miles away in Seville, a man narrowly {{U}} {{U}} 6 {{/U}} {{/U}}serious injury when a 9-pound ball of ice {{U}} {{U}} 7 {{/U}} {{/U}}into his car. {{U}} {{U}} 8 {{/U}} {{/U}}the evening of January 27 priests at the Salesian monastery in L'Aquila, Italy were startled by a loud crash. {{U}} {{U}} 9 {{/U}} {{/U}}the noise, they discovered a large chunk of ice on their yard, {{U}} {{U}} 10 {{/U}} {{/U}}intact. Upon examination, the block of ice {{U}} {{U}} 11 {{/U}} {{/U}}in at 2 kilograms and no source {{U}} {{U}} 12 {{/U}} {{/U}}. On the same day, about 100 miles northeast in Ancona, Italy, the local officials were called to investigate the report of a man {{U}} {{U}} 13 {{/U}} {{/U}}was struck {{U}} {{U}} 14 {{/U}} {{/U}}the head by a 1 kilogram chunk of ice that apparently fell from the sky.
Spain and Italy aren't the only European {{U}} {{U}} 15 {{/U}} {{/U}}getting attacked by huge ice blocks in January. On January 2 in Surrey, England (southwest of London), an East Indian man was walking through Newton Athletic Park when he {{U}} {{U}} 16 {{/U}} {{/U}}a strange whistling sound overhead. Seconds {{U}} {{U}} 17 {{/U}} {{/U}}, a large hunk of ice fell out of the clear blue sky and pounded into the soft ground, shattering over a 50 foot-wide area. The ice dug a hole of a foot deep and a foot in diameter. Even the shattered remains of the mystery ice were as large as tennis balls and were described as opaque {{U}} {{U}} 18 {{/U}} {{/U}}no unusual color or smell.
Although eyewitnesses to the phenomenon report that they did not see anything in the sky that could account {{U}} {{U}} 19 {{/U}} {{/U}}the ice, scientists had to come up with a rationalization. Professor Jesus Martinez Frias, the geologist investigating the ice falls in Spain, told BBC News that the ice pieces had probably been {{U}} {{U}} 20 {{/U}} {{/U}}through sudden temperature drops in the stratosphere. This was the most likely explanation, he said, for the "very unusual" phenomenon.