.________ the warning message, more lives would have been lost in the flood.

 the warning message, more lives would have been lost in the flood．

       A．Regardless of   B．Instead of          C．But for             D．Except for

        the warning message, more lives        lost in the flood.

A．But for; would have been                             B．Regardless of; would have been

C．Instead of; would be                                          D．Except for; would be