HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC – VOA’s radio magazine in SpecialEnglish.
Our program today is a special one. We tell about the recentterrorist attack against the United States. We answer a listener’squestion about the two buildings in New York City that were calledthe World Trade Center. We read some of the letters from listenersaround the world who have offered their sympathy for the victims inNew York and Washington, D-C.
And we play music that tells how most Americans feel about theircountry.
((CUT ONE: BRIDGE MUSIC))
On Tuesday, September eleventh, many things changed forever inthe United States. Terrorists hijacked four civilian passengeraircraft. All were flights from the eastern United States toCalifornia.
Two of the aircraft turned away from their planned flights andflew to New York City. It is believed the terrorists were flyingboth planes.
At Eight-Forty-Five in the morning, New York time, one of theplanes crashed into the north building of the World Trade Center.The aircraft tore a huge hole in the building. The aircraft fuelimmediately caused a huge fire.
At three minutes after Nine-o-clock, the second hijacked airlinercrashed into the south building of the World Trade Center andexploded. Both buildings were burning.
Forty minutes later, a third hijacked aircraft crashed into theDefense Department Building called the Pentagon near Washington D-C.Here too, airplane fuel caused a huge fire.
About ten-o-clock in New York, the south building of the WorldTrade Center fell down. About twenty-five minutes later, the northbuilding fell down.
Twenty minutes later, police in the eastern state of Pennsylvaniaconfirmed that a fourth hijacked aircraft had crashed. There were nosurvivors. Later, experts said the passengers on this flight mayhave fought with the terrorists and caused the crash, or caused theterrorists to crash the plane. The experts believe this fourthaircraft was being flown to a target in Washington D-C. The braveactions of the passengers on this flight may have saved hundreds ifnot thousands of other lives.
Officials still do not know how many innocent people were killedin this terrorist attack. However, they believe now that the numberof people on the airplanes and those who died in the buildings ismore than five-thousand.
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
Our listener question this week comes from Mongolia. A. Amartuyaexpressed sadness for the attack and asked us to explain what theWorld Trade Center was.
The World Trade Center in New York was a group of buildings thatopened in Nineteen-Seventy-Three. It occupied six and one-halfhectares of land. Its two largest buildings were more thanfour-hundred-ten meters tall. They once were the tallest buildingsin the world.
About fifty-thousand people worked each day in the World TradeCenter. They worked at the headquarters offices of many largefinancial companies. Some of the companies had more thanone-thousand employees working in their World Trade Center offices.Many of these financial companies have other offices in the majorcities of the world.
The World Trade Center had several eating places. There was alarge day care center for children whose parents worked in thebuilding. There was a huge area of stores under the offices. Peoplecould buy food, clothing, newspapers, magazines and many otherproducts.
The World Trade Center was built to survive severe weatherconditions, such as winds from large ocean storms. It was built tosurvive serious fires. The two buildings survived when they were hitby the large passenger aircraft traveling at about three-hundredkilometers an hour.
However, experts said they could not survive the thousands ofliters of airplane fuel that caused extremely hot fires. The firesweakened the steel that supported the buildings. The top of eachbuilding began to fall into the next lower part. Each part fell intothe next until the huge buildings were no more.
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
When a terrible event like this takes place in the world it isnot unusual for the leaders of many countries to express sadness orto offer aid. The events of September Eleventh were no different.Within hours, world leaders offered expressions of shock, anger andsympathy. These included the leaders of governments that often havepolitical differences with the United States.
Shock, anger and sadness were also expressed by many listenerswho are part of the Special English family. They sent computere-mail messages to us. I would like to share a few of thesewonderful letters with you.
A listener in Sweden spoke for many people when he wrote: “Let meexpress my sympathy for you and your country after this terribleterrorist attack. I really hope the guilty people will be found andbrought to justice.”
Four members of a VOA listeners club in Tajikistan wrote: “Pleaseaccept our deep feelings and condolences. We are with you, dearfriends.”
A woman in Egypt sent this message: “I am Egyptian and Muslim. Iwant to say that all Egyptians – Muslims, Christians and Jews –condemn this massacre.”
A man from Brazil wrote:” I am deeply sad and shocked with theseterrible terrorist attacks suffered by the U-S-A. These huge attackshit not only the Americans but all humankind.”
This message came from two listeners in Somalia: “Your manylisteners in Mogadishu join us in offering. . . condolence to you,all the staff of the VOA and all Americans. We hope this kind ofattack will not happen again.”
And from China, a listener wrote: “I am a plain Chinese citizen.I deeply condemn the evil actions against American civilians. Pleaseaccept my sincere sympathy to the victims. Let us pray for all thepeople who were killed in the tragedy. God bless humankind.”
These were only a few of the many messages we have received atSpecial English. We would like to say “thank you” for the many kindletters from our listening family.
((THEME))
Each week, American Mosaic plays music from a new album of apopular musician, songs that have won awards or music from a show onBroadway.
This week we would like to play only one song. Ray Charles singsit. We chose this song because Mister Charles almost sings it inSpecial English. He makes it very easy to follow the words. We alsolike the idea of the song. We hope you do, too. Here is Ray Charleswith “America the Beautiful.”
((CUT ONE: “AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL”))
This is Doug Johnson. Thank you for joining us today for thisspecial American Mosaic program. I hope you will join us again nextweek for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English.
This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written and produced by PaulThompson. Our studio engineer was Vasilij Volaric.