Smooth balls of ice rolled ashore on a beach in Finland and piled up like a huge bunch of turtles' eggs.
But where did these "ice eggs  come from?
      Amateur photographer Risto Mattila stumbled upon the strange sight while walking with his wife on Hailu-
oto Island. The temperature remained around minus I degree Celsius that day, he said. and the wind blew
quickly  across the beach.   " There .  we found this amazing phenomenon.  There was snow and ice eggs along the beach near the water line" .
      The "ice eggs" littered an area the length of about one-quarter of a football field and ranged in size from
that of an average chicken egg to that of a powerful soccer ball.  Mattila took a photo, noting that he had " nev-
er seen anything like this during 25 years around here. " Others came upon the ice eggs, too.  "I' ve never
seen this before.  The whole beach was almost full of these ice balls, " said Tarja Terentjeff, who lives in the
nearby town of Oulu.  Another local, Sirpa Tero. told CNN she ' d seen snowballs line the shoreline before.
  " but not over such a large area. "
     " Although it happens once in a blue moon.  these ice eggs form similarly to sea glass or rounded stones
that wash up on the beach." said BBC Weather expert George Goodfellow.  Chunks(块) of ice break off from
larger ice sheets in the sea and either slide to shore on the incoming tide or get pushed in by strong spells of
wind at the water' s surface, he explained. Waves buffet(冲击) the ice chunks as they travel, slowly eroding
their rough edges into smooth curves. Seawater sticks and freezes to the forming eggs, causing them to grow
like snowballs do as they roll across the ground. leaving behind nothing but smooth and shiny "eggs" for curi-
ous tourists to happen upon.
24.  The underlined phrase " stumbled upon" in Paragraph 2 can be best replaced by__  
     A. pulled through           B.  survived from          C. ran across              D. took notes of
25. What can we know from Paragraph 3?
     A. It was a very unusual phenomenon.               B. Ice eggs gathered in a football field.
     C. Only a quarter of the area was stricken.          D. The beach was completely ice-covered.
26. According to Goodfellow. how did the “ice eggs” come into being?
     A. By means of sea water buffeting the wood chunks.
      B. On the basis of the strong force of the cold wind.
     C. By way of the special location and cold weather.
      D. Through a rare combination of weather and waves.
27. What does the text mainly talk about?
     A. An extraordinary trip of "ice eggs".              B. The power of wind and seawater.
     C. A strange weather-based occurrence.             D. How snowball affected the shoreline.
                         
24. C。词义猜测题。根据该部分前后的内容及后文中的Others came upon the ice eggs, too可知。
25. A。推理判断题。综合该段人物的话语可知：这个现象比较罕见。
26. D。推理判断题。根据第4段George Goodfellow 的话可知这一现象是在特殊的天气和海水的共同作用下形成的。
27. C。主旨大意。本文主要讲述了“冰蛋”这一奇特现象，故选C。