Remembrance of

the 9/11 Victims

Vocabulary

Video: The 9/11 Remembrance

Transcript

Two-thousand, nine-hundred and seventy-seven (2,977) lives; a lost that still haunts America. The New York police and fire department bands played a hundreds of funerals.

Perceptions of presidents were shaped and redefined that day, when the bell tolled for so many, on a bright September morning, much like today.

Mike Lowe, Father of American Airlines Fight Attendant: “These twenty years have felt like both a short time and a long time. And as we recite the names of those we lost, my memory goes back to that terrible day, when it felt like an evil specter had descended on our world.

But it was also a time when many people acted above and beyond the ordinary.”

They were day traders and flight attendants, cleaners and tourists, young and old, rich and poor, firefighters and police officers.

A generation has been born since then, marked by the legacy.

 
In Washington, officials at the Pentagon marked the moment a plane tore a hole in the center of US power. The attacks posed a grim challenge to superpower America’s might.

It responded with a war on terror.

Many more soldiers would lose their lives in its name.

Lloyd Austin, US Secretary of Defence: “And many of the thirteen brave men and women who just days ago gave their lives to save others in Afghanistan and were babies in 2001.”

 
September 11th’s final attack: the hijacking of United Flight 93, its passengers wrested back control of the plane from its hijackers. It went down in a Pennsylvania field.

The man who led America through 9/11 remembered the day’s heroes who helped one another that morning.

George W. Bush, US President, 2001 to 2009: “I come without explanations or solutions. I can only tell you what I’ve seen.

On America’s day of trial and grief, I saw millions of people instinctively grab for a neighbor’s hand, and rally to the cause of one another.”

That unity born of trauma and grief on September 11 did not endure. But what has lasted are people’s memories of those who perished that day.

The large gathering at Ground Zero this anniversary are a reminder of that time, when America seemed to stand as one.

Questions

January. People came to central New York to honor those who had died from the coronavirus (covid-19). True or false?

February. Did a man play a trumpet during the commemoration?

March. The tragedy happened on 11 September, 2019. Is this right or wrong?

April. Because the Twin Towers had been attacked, did only business people die?

May. After the 9/11 attacks, did everything return to normal in the US and the world?

June. All the US soldiers who served in Afghanistan remember 9/11 attacks. Is this correct or incorrect?

July. Who is George W. Bush? What did he do?

August. Did Bush talk about how brave the US military was and how it had triumphed in Afghanistan?
 
 
 
September. Everyone born before 1995 knows exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news of the 11 September, 2001 attacks. Yes or no? Do you, your parents and teachers remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard about the 9/11 attacks?

October. What was your, your parents’ or friends’ and colleagues’ reaction? How did you or they feel?

November. Has 9/11 changed your life? Has it changed your city, region and country? Has there been much news coverage, talks, debates, discussions about 9/11 and its aftermath?

December. What might happen in the future?

Months of the Year. How can people and governments move forward?