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大学英语六级词汇Unit12Part2

发布时间:2016-03-02  编辑:查字典英语网小编

  As a bewildered public endeavored to assimilate

  this overwhelming event,

  at 9∶03 a.m., a second hijacked jet

  crashed into Two W.T.C.

  Millions of people around the world,

  having been alerted to the incident

  and now watching the terror

  unfold on their televisions,

  watched in shock as the second plane,

  in the blink of an eye,

  entered the south tower

  at approximately the seventy-second floor

  and partially exited the opposite wall.

  Fire and police departments

  were mobilized immediately.

  Rapid evacuation of the buildings was crucial.

  Many workers on upper floors,

  knowing there was no escape,

  committed suicide by hurling themselves

  out of windows to their deaths.

  Then, 62 minutes after it had been crashed into,

  the south tower crumbled into the streets

  in a gigantic cloud of dust and debris.

  Hundreds of police and firefighters

  intent on their rescue mission

  lost their lives as Two W.T.C. collapsed.

  Drivers and attendants of emergency vehicles,

  unable to abandon their posts,

  died where they had stopped

  to give aid and assistance.

  Employees from the two towers,

  rushing to escape the raging fires,

  were caught in the wreckage.

  Pedestrians, uncertain of which way to turn,

  and not convinced of the need for urgency,

  found themselves trapped

  in an avalanche of concrete.

  Members of the media,

  on their way to

  cover the breaking news of the disaster,

  became victims of it.

  Hundreds of commuters,

  on their way to work via subway,

  were trapped below ground with no escape possible.

  Hospital emergency departments,

  having been notified of the explosions,

  quickly prepared for the arrival of casualties.

  When the expected influx failed to materialize,

  it could only mean that there were few survivors.

  One W.T.C. collapsed at 10∶30 a.m.,

  105 minutes after being hit,

  adding to the mass confusion in the streets.

  Seven W.T.C.,

  a later addition to the complex,

  was damaged,caught fire,

  and collapsed later that afternoon.

  Not one of the adjoining structures was left intact.

  In the aftermath of this incredible misfortune,

  the pieces of the puzzle

  began to be put in place.

  Shortly before 8∶00 a.m. on September 11, 2001,

  three commercial airliners were hijacked

  from Logan Airport in Boston, Massachusetts.

  All were transcontinental flights

  with passengers destined for California

  and their full fuel tanks

  provided the ammunition critical

  to the mission of the hijackers.

  Authorities speculate that

  the pilots were assassinated

  and their places taken by the terrorists

  who had had flight training.

  In all, there were 157 passengers

  and crew on the two planes.

  The third plane crashed in Pennsylvania

  killing 45 passengers and crew.

  A number of the hostages managed to

  use their cellular telephones to

  call their families to say goodbye.

  Everything occurred

  in such a short period of time that,

  other than alerting a handful of people

  that there were some hijackings,

  no one had any idea why.

  The dilemma was that there were no warnings,

  no demands for ransom,

  and no hints that this bright,

  sunny September morning was about

  to become a day that will live forever

  in the minds of those

  who witnessed the tragedy.

  It will be years

  before the final toll of damage

  will be known.

  To consolidate information,

  compute the financial losses,

  designate a monetary value for loss of life,

  fill the void left on the terrain,

  to make sense of this misfortune

  intended to undermine the foundation of America

  is a formidable assignment.

  We do know that

  destruction of the World Trade Center

  cost the lives of more than

  three thousand innocent people

  in the buildings, in the hijacked airplanes,

  and in the surrounding streets.

  Who can erase the mental images of those planes

  smashing into the twin towers?

  Who is unable to visualize the spectacle

  of terrified men and women

  jumping to their doom?

  How can those of us

  who observed the collapse

  of the buildings fail to dwell

  on the loss of life caused by men,cowards,

  who lacked the fortitud

  to proclaim war on their alleged enemy?

  Today, October 22, 2001,

  nine more corpses were

  discovered in the rubbl,

  the first such discovery in several weeks.

  This may seem trivial when one considers

  the multitude of people who died.

  However, the fatalities

  arent the only victims

  of this tragic event.

  Their families, friends,

  and colleagues need closure.

  They need to know with certainty

  that their loved ones are dead

  and they need to bury the remains.

  Unfortunately,most of the casualties

  will probably never be found

  because the heat produced

  by the ignition of jet fuel

  and the damage incurred by the impact

  would have instantaneously vaporized everything

  and everyone in the immediate vicinity.

  Others, in the buildings

  or on the streets as the towers collapsed

  are under so much debris

  that their bodies may

  not be found for months.

  The list of buildings collapsed

  and damaged includes all seven buildings

  of the W.T.C.complex comprising W.T.C.6,

  the U.S. Customs House to the north;

  W.T.C.3, the 22 story Marriott World Trade Center Hotel

  just west of Tower Two;

  W.T.C.4 and 5, the Plaza Buildings,

  and One Liberty Plaza, a 54 story,

  743 foot high building to the east.

  Firefighters and recovery workers

  remain on the scene.

  The fires still smolder beneath the ruins.

  The American spirit has been bruised

  and the land has been scarred.

  The citizens of this powerful nation

  now realize just how fragile

  and vulnerable their country is.

  Nevertheless,they are defiant.

  They do not consider themselves

  easy prey for terrorists.

  They are still optimistic

  about their place in todays world.

  They assert that the nightmare

  visited upon them will be visited

  upon the perpetrators of this cowardly act.

  The World Trade Center is no more.

  The dream of an international axis of business,

  once a reality,will be revised.

  Maybe having one place

  that is so prominent will also be rethought.

  Whatever the outcome,

  this massacre has served

  to strengthen the resolve of a mighty nation.

  The dream and dreamers will survive.

  

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