It is sometimes suggested that tornadoes never strike big cities. In an attempt to (1) _______ this theory. Some say that the higher temperatures at the centre of large urban areas, together with the air turbulence created by very tall building, somehow (2) _______ to disrupt tornadoes, or even keep them away entirely. (3) _______ is made of the apparent lack of recorded cases of severe damage to major cities. The (4) _______, however, is rather different. While it is true that smaller tornadoes do indeed seem to be less common in the middle of cities (5) _______ by millions of people, claims by their citizens that they are in some way immune to the effects of major tornadoes would seem to be no more than wishful (6) _______. For a start, a couple of degrees difference in (7) _______, or a handful of 200-metre office blocks, are hardly likely to impede the (8) _______ of the kinds of 12-kilometre-high monsters seen in recent years. Equally unconvincing is the argument that ‘big cities are never hit’. Most people, when they think of a city, tend to imagine (9) _______ like downtown New York or Tokyo, when in reality this is a very small ‘target’ area. Unfortunately, there are plenty of well-documented cases of severe destruction to suburbs, which form by far the most extensive part of any big town. It is only by (10) _______ that a densely populated city centre has not yet been hit – but sooner or later it is bound to happen.