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A
Freeway-on-line EFL resource from Linguapress.com ©
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STATES UNITED BY TERROR
The terrible destruction
of the World Trade Center, on September 11th 2001, has united the States
in a way that they have not known for many years. It has also united most
of the world.
We will never forget what
happened on that day of terror.
Two planes,
carrying passengers and crew, were
hijacked
by terrorists and flown into the two towers of the World Trade Centre,
which later collapsed.
Two other
planes (1) were also hijacked. One was thrown against
the Pentagon; in the other, heroic passengers fought the terrorists (2),
making the plane crash in a forest in Pennsylvania. That resistance probably
saved hundreds of lives (3).
In all,
over 5,000 people - from over 60 different countries -
died in New York or in Washington: among them there were over 200 people
from the emergency services,
the police
and the New York Fire Department.
While
frightened workers poured downstairs
to escape from the two burning towers, emergency workers were going upstairs,
climbing towards the death and destruction above them; they were climbing
to their own deaths. Others remained
below, to receive the casualties as
they were brought down. They too died when the 104 stories
of the massive buildings above them collapsed in a fury of dust and smoke
and masonry.
"They
were the bravest men I've ever seen," said a man who escaped from the towering
inferno
of the World Trade Centre.
As people
began to understand the full extent
of the tragedy, the whole of the USA was united in grief
and in horror. The tragedy affected all Americans - Whites, Blacks, Hispanics,
Asians and others. In cosmopolitan
America, New York is the most cosmopolitan city, and the World Trade Centre
(4)
was
probably the most cosmopolitan building in the city, apart
from the United Nations building.
All over
the USA, people offered their blood to help the injured;
but in fact there was not a lot of need for blood. When the massive buildings
collapsed, most people died instantly. Only a few injured people were brought
out from the debris.
The disaster
united Americans in grief, because
almost every American felt personally attacked. In the World Trade Centre
and at the Pentagon, there were men and women from every state in the USA;
and in every state, local newspapers and TV stations told of local men
and women, sons or daughters, husbands or wives, who had died in the terrible
disaster.
Sometimes
however they told stories of local men or women who, by miracle, had not
perished.
There was the man from New Jersey who missed his train into new York, because
he returned home as he'd forgotten to take out his garbage
bin. There was the man who stopped off at the bank, on his
way to work. There were other lucky ones too; but 5,000 men and women were
not lucky, and it was their tragedy that united a nation in grief.
Perhaps the most devastating story concerned the boss of a company called Cantor Fitzgerald. He himself did not die, as he was out of the building when the disaster occurred; but of his 1000 employees, 700 - including his younger brother - were at work..... on the top floors of the first tower. He knew most of them personally. They are all among the list of the "missing".
Tragedy has a strong force
to unite people; great tragedy has an even greater force.
The fanatical
murderers who planned this attack, and carried it out, thought
that they would make America weaker; in fact, they have made it stronger.
Almost the whole world has been united in horror and sympathy.
COSMOPOLITAN
Notes
1. It is possible that terrorists
were planning to hijack as many as twelve planes.
2. One of the passengers
called his wife on his mobile phone, to say what they were doing.
3. It seems that the terrorists
wanted to crash the plane into the White House.
4. The World Trade Centre
was not an official building. It was the biggest office block in New York.
Hundreds of companies, from America and many other countries, had offices
in the building.