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September 17
New Yorkers: Determined to show defiance
2001: Workers return to Wall Street
England have
New Yorkers have been returning to work six days after the terror attacks
which devastated the heart of their city.
Thousands are believed dead after hijackers deliberately flew three
passenger planes into buildings in New York and Washington.
Workers from New York"s financial district - many of them draped in the
American flag - have said they want to show life can go on.
The air was still thick with dust and smoke from the collapsed towers of
the World Trade Center and dozens of those going back to work wore face masks to
protect themselves.
The devastation and the troops lining Wall Street made the city look more
like a war zone than a business district, but the people who work here were
determined to prove their defiance.
"They expect us to be down on the floor - if it lifts everyone"s spirits
then I"ve done something good today," one man told the BBC.
Jim Textor, a lawyer forced to flee the carnage on 11 September, said
Americans wanted to imitate the British way of dealing with years of attacks by
the IRA.
"It"s important you demonstrate that you can"t be beat and that you have to
go back to work," he said.
But there was also grief in a city which has lost so many.
As the search for survivors in the wreckage of the towers becomes a hunt
for bodies, American Red Cross workers mingled with the crowds to offer
counselling.
"It doesn"t matter if you"re rich or poor, young or old, you still have
those same feelings of trauma ," said Pam Jennings.
All Mr Buckley"s record attempts have have taken place on Lake
Windermere
1956: World water speed record smashed
Artificially 1969: FilmTheTheAA A 48-year-old solicitor from Manchester has
broken the one-hour world water speed record in his motorboat, Miss Windermere
III.
Norman Buckley drove the boat at an average speed of over 79mph during his
hour on the course on Lake Windermere.
But he said he was disappointed not to have reached 80mph.
The previous record was 64.03mph, set by Charles von Mayenburg of
Germany.
On returning to the Windermere Motor Boat Racing Club - which has hosted
all his world record attempts - he said he had had one or two anxious moments
during the attempt.
On one occasion, the wash from a passing launch threatened to jeopardise
the whole operation.
"I throttled down just before the wash hit me, but even so the boat leaped
clear of the water," Mr Buckley said.
"Had I not slowed, anything might have happened."
Among those in the audience was fellow speedboat enthusiast and close
personal friend, Donald Campbell, who makes his own attempt on the water-speed
record on Coniston Water later this month.
He said the incident involving the launch had "cost Britain a record of
80mph".
The record attempt was delayed by several hours as Mr Buckley"s team
endured an anxious wait for early morning mists to lift from the lake.
Mr Buckley designed and built his hydroplane boat, Miss Windermere III,
himself.
This was the third time he had tried to break the record: the previous
attempt, in May, failed disastrously when the boat"s propellor shaft broke,
possibly broken off by a piece of driftwood.
Mr Buckley, whose job as a solicitor means he can only indulge his hobby of
powerboat racing at the weekends, already holds one world speed record.
In 1951, he drove Miss Windermere at 63.53mph over a 24-mile course on the
lake, breaking the speed record for 800kg class motorboats.(实习编辑 夏根建)
Vocabulary:
trauma : an emotional wound or shock often having long-lasting
effects(损伤)
jeopardise : to present a danger to(危及) |
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发表于 2016-7-9 23:18:17