十七年前的今天是美國本土境內遭受到史上最恐怖的攻擊的日子。911發生時，我在臺北。看著紐約雙子星大樓被一架民航機穿心而過的畫面，腦子停頓許久，無法有邏輯的處理眼前所見的畫面。太不真實了！是搞笑嗎？是惡作劇嗎？待雙子星大樓爆炸起火，新聞焦點不斷更新現場如臨地獄般恐慌與混亂情況，這纔不可置信地接受這彷如星際大戰的電影情節，真真實實地發生在這超級強國。

今天，一如過去十六年，紐約市在當年事發的原址舉辦追悼儀式，悼念於此事件中犧牲的2,983條生命。我待在美國的家裡，看著當年畫面重播，不真實的感覺依然在。只是今年，追思會多了一些政治色彩。看來，意識型態真的是人類共同的，無法免疫的毒。

以下，我節錄一篇由The Daily Caller電子報上描述911事件的文章，我們來順便認幾個單字。(The Daily Caller，報導觀點傾右派，政論支持共和黨）

 

On September 11, 2001 at approximately 8:45 a.m., the first hijacked plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center. A second plane crashed into the second twin tower around its 60th floor about 18 minutes later.

As chaos ensued and explosions erupted in Lower Manhattan, a third plane circled around Washington, D.C., before it sliced into the west side of the Pentagon at 9:45 am.

A fourth plane, believed to be headed for the White House or the Capitol, never made it to its destination due to the bravery of the passengers aboard the United Airlines Flight 93 who fought back against the hijackers as the plane crashed into an empty field in southwestern Pennsylvania.

On that day, nearly 3,000 people from 93 different nations were killed as a direct result of those attacks: roughly 2,753 in New York, 184 at the Pentagon and 40 on Flight 93.

 

appoximately 大約

hijacked plane 被挾持的飛機

crash into 撞上

chaos 混亂

ensue 接踵而來

explosion 爆炸

erupt 爆發

circle around 盤旋

slice into 碎裂, 散落下來

head for 前往

the Capital 首都（華府）

destination 目的地

due to 由於

bravery 英勇行為

passenger 旅客乘客

hijack  劫機