Fill in the blank with ONE word. (20 points)
Time stands still in London
Time stood still in London on May 27. Big Ben, the 147-year-old clock that is famous around the world, ___1___ stopped for ___2___ minutes. The clock’s minute hand froze at 10.20 PM and then started moving again at 11.50 PM. ___3___ are baffled and cannot explain why the clock stopped. It is usually very reliable and rarely loses even one second.
Big Ben is well known for both its ___4___ and its hourly chimes. It miraculously ___5___ the bombing attacks on London during World War II. It even managed to keep time to within one and a half seconds of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). However, it hasn’t always been so ___6___: snow caused the clock to ring in the New Year ten minutes late in ___7___.
Many people ___8___ believe Big Ben is either the name of the clock itself or of the clock tower. In fact, it is neither. Big Ben is the name of the 13-ton bell that ___9___ on every hour. It was ___10___ after Sir Benjamin Hall, who ordered the clock’s construction. The official name for the tower that houses Big Ben is St. Stephen’s Tower.
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