单选题 {{B}}Directions:{{/B}}
Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on the ANSWER SHEET.
March 11th marks the second anniversary of the tsunami that killed 18,500 people in Japan. Good news is scant. Almost 315,000 evacuees still {{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}} {{/U}}in cramped temporary housing, and need new {{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}.
A different kind of suffering weighs on about 20m people (a sixth of the {{U}} {{U}} 3 {{/U}} {{/U}}) at this time of year which, though less than anguish-filled, is not trivial. {{U}} {{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}late February until May they {{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}}pollen allergies, mostly {{U}} {{U}} 6 {{/U}} {{/U}}by Japanese cedar, or sugi, trees. Usually the affliction, entailing sneezing, eye irritation and huge medical bills, is shrugged off—it can't be helped.
{{U}} {{U}} 7 {{/U}} {{/U}}a way could be found to ease the allergies that could also {{U}} {{U}} 8 {{/U}} {{/U}}rebuild homes. It would involve thinning out the sugi and other conifer plantations that {{U}} {{U}} 9 {{/U}} {{/U}}about 40% of Japan's forest, most of which are now {{U}} {{U}} 10 {{/U}} {{/U}}as uneconomic. The timber could be used to restore and beautify lost villages.
The sugi were planted across Japan after the war as material to {{U}} {{U}} 11 {{/U}} {{/U}}destroyed cities and {{U}} {{U}} 12 {{/U}} {{/U}}. Sugi, straight and tall, are {{U}} {{U}} 13 {{/U}} {{/U}}for construction. But after taxes fell, imported wood put the sugi foresters out of business.
The higher they grow, the more pollen the magnificent, abandoned trees emit. Officials say some owners, many now in their 70s, reject {{U}} {{U}} 14 {{/U}} {{/U}}to plant new ones that emit less pollen {{U}} {{U}} 15 {{/U}} {{/U}}the payback is too long. As a result, {{U}} {{U}} 16 {{/U}} {{/U}}Kevin Short, a columnist for the Daily Yomiuri, an English-language newspaper, "immense clouds of yellow-green sugi pollen dust {{U}} {{U}} 17 {{/U}} {{/U}}down onto the urban areas, like some amorphous monster out of a science-fiction movie."
{{U}} {{U}} 18 {{/U}} {{/U}}Kiyohito Onuma of the Forestry Agency says his sneezing wife and children often ask him to do more to {{U}} {{U}} 19 {{/U}} {{/U}}the problem, the public pressure is muted. Partly this is because the sugi have always {{U}} {{U}} 20 {{/U}} {{/U}}near temples and shrines, and are part of national folklore.