The 16 began 45 minutes before the start of the European Cup final.
答案：(C) tragedy
tragedy（悲劇）呼應全文描述1985年布魯塞爾足球暴動造成多人喪生的慘劇；circumstance／sequence／phenomenon 均不符合此處語意。
四個選項都是抽象名詞，中文擺進去好像都能講通，你會挑一個讀起來最不奇怪的。
鑑別度高達 56，分開的是有沒有注意到空格前面那個 The。定冠詞 The 表示這個名詞指的是「剛剛已經提過的那一件事」，所以要往前一句找它到底指什麼——a riot at a Brussels soccer match occurred, in which many fans lost their lives（布魯塞爾一場足球賽發生暴動，許多球迷因此喪生）。死了很多人的事件，中文就是慘劇，英文用 tragedy。填進去讀成 The tragedy began 45 minutes before the start of the European Cup final（這場慘劇在歐洲盃決賽開賽前四十五分鐘就開始了）。
circumstance（情況、情勢）與 phenomenon（現象）都太中性，講不出死傷這一層，而且 phenomenon 指的是反覆出現、可以觀察的現象，不是一次性的突發事件；sequence（順序、一連串）要說明是「什麼的一連串」，單獨用不成意思。三個都是抽象名詞，形態吻合，容易被順手選走。
tragedy（悲劇、慘劇）、phenomenon（現象，複數 phenomena）、circumstance（情況、情勢）、under no circumstances（絕不、在任何情況下都不）、break out（爆發，用於戰爭、火災、暴動）、lose one's life（喪生）。
In 1985, a riot at a Brussels soccer match occurred, in which many fans lost their lives. The 16 began 45 minutes before the start of the European Cup final. The British team was scheduled to 17 the Italian team in the game.
Noisy British fans, after setting off some rockets and fireworks to cheer for 18 team, broke through a thin wire fence and started to attack the Italian fans. The Italians, in panic, 19 the main exit in their section when a six-foot concrete wall collapsed. By the end of the night, 38 soccer fans had died and 437 were injured. The majority of the deaths resulted from people 20 trampled underfoot or crushed against barriers in the stadium.
As a result of this 1985 soccer incident, security measures have since been tightened at major sports competitions to prevent similar events from happening.