US Marks 9-11 Anniversary

The biggest event in New York opened with the sound of bagpipes(风笛) and drums commemorating(纪念) the attack when two planes hit the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke about the impact of the attack nine years later.

"We meet to commemorate the day we have come to call 9-11. We have returned to this ____1____ (圣洁之地) to join our hearts together, with the names of those we loved and lost. No other public ____2____ (悲剧) has cut our city so deeply. No other place is as filled with our ____3____ (怜悯，同情), our love and our ____4____ (团结)."

Relatives, joined by people working to build the Ground Zero(世贸中心遗址) ____5____ (纪念碑，纪念物), read out loud the names of the victims of the terrorist attack. The reading of the list was ____6____ (打断) by a moment of silence held at 8:46 am and again at 9:03 am, the times ____7____ (被劫持的) jetliners hit the North and South towers of the World Trade Center.

U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden and his wife were among the dignitaries(显要人物) who attended the New York ceremony.

"We come not to ____8____ (哀悼) but to remember and rebuild. In the words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem 'The Builders': 'All our ____9____ (建筑师) of fate working in these walls of time, some with massive deeds in great, some with ornaments of rhyme.'"

Interspersed(散布，点缀) in the crowd of mourners were chants(反复有节奏地喊叫) of thousands of sign-waving protesters both for and against the planned Islamic center near Ground Zero.

The debate over the Mosque pits advocates of religious freedom against(pit...against意为使某物与某物相斗争) critics(评论家) who say putting an Islamic center so close to Ground Zero disrespects the dead.

This woman, who was holding a sign that read, "No Mosque on Ground Zero," explains why she is opposed to the plans.

"The American children, they lost their parents. The American people, they lost their family. So we should understand the feelings of America. It's not the political issue. It's the feelings of America. So our people give a lot of blood. I know that I worked as a volunteer for the second day that happened and I saw how it is terrible, so we American people don't want the mosque at Ground Zero."

Also adding to the ____10____ (紧张的状态) was the plan by a Florida clergyman to burn copies of the Islamic holy book. Reverend Terry Jones has since backed off from his plans and arrived in New York late Friday in an attempt to meet with a leading imam(伊玛目) to discuss the proposal for the Islamic center in hopes of having it moved farther away from the Ground Zero site.

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