Unit 1 “We’ve Been Hit!”
With the building in flames, one man needed help. Another man refud to leave him.
Adam Mayblum ud to enjoy watching as storms lashed the windows of his office: You think that’s power? Mayblum would scoff. I’m on the 87th fl oor of the World Trade Center. That’s power. The drawstrings on his window shades would appear to sway slightly, but it was an illusion. Although they were 1,040 feet in the sky, The WTC was quite steady.
When Mayblum felt a devastating rumble on that September morning, he glanced at the drawstrings. They were careening wildly, three feet in either direction.
Mayblum would be one of thousands cast into an extraordinary purgatory that morning1. While as many as 25,000 would find their way to safety, 5,000 would not.
For some, it was a matter of geography2 — not just which tower they worked in or on which floor, but in which corner of the building.
锻炼的英文
For some, the choices were as basic as which stairca to u. Others faced the ultimate moral dilemma: Save yourlf, or save another.
The confusion inside Adam Mayblum’s office at May Davis, a financial rvices firm, lasted just conds. He knew he needed to get out. 将来进行时
He ripped his T-shirt into pieces, soaked the pieces in water and gave them to colleagues to cover their faces. Among them: Harry Ramos, head trader at May Davis. Mayblum had worked with Ramos off and on for 14 years.3
Sparks bit at Mayblum’s ankles as he raced for the stairs. He bolted down two flights before realizing that his trading partner, Hong Zhu, had been left behind. He went back upstairs, the whole area now filled with smoke and burning jet fuel.
There was no sign of Hong. Mayblum hurried down again and made it to the 78th floor, a transfer lobby where one t of elevators and stairs ended and another began. He saw a reassuring sight; Ramos had waded into the pandemonium to help panicked workers into a stairwell.
Mayblum continued his descent, the muscles in his calves contracting in spasms. On the 53rd floo r, he came across a heavyt man who legs just wouldn’t move anymore.4“Do you want to come, or do you want us to nd help?” Mayblum shouted.
The man asked him to nd help. Adam said he would.
In the noi, smoke and sparks, Mayblum didn’t realize that his friend Hong Zhu was behind him in the stairwell the whole time. When Hong got to the 53rd floor, he came across Harry Ramos. Ramos had stooped to help the heavyt man Mayblum had en earlier. “I’ll give you a hand,” Hong said.
Together, Ramos and Hong helped the man down one more flight to an elevator.
“Don’t take it,” a Port Authority official screamed.
Hong and Ramos tried to nd a magazine down in the elevator to test its safety. But when they presd the “down” button, the doors wouldn’t clo. So Hong decided that he would be the guinea pig instead.5
He stepped inside, and the doors shut behind him.
Hong took the elevator down to the 44th floor, the next transfer lobby. So far, so good. He presd “52,” went back up and collected Ramos and the heavyt man.
On 44 Hong and Ramos helped the man toward the last bank of elevators that would take them all the way down.
Hong presd the “down” button again. Nothing. They would have to take the stairs.
Ramos a nd Hong tried to support the man. “One step at a time,” Hong said.
They had been trying to get out for an hour and five minutes. They were on 36 when they felt the South Tower collap.
livereception“We really have to move,” Hong said.
研究生考试报名时间The rumbles of the collapsing tower next door emed to sap the heavyt man of his last gasps of energy. “I can’t do it anymore,” he said, sitting down.
双面针织机
中秋节快乐的英文
Hong and Ramos tried to persuade him to continue. “You don’t have to move your legs!” Hong shouted. “Just move your butt. Let’s go!” But the man couldn’t go on. 男士祛痘印方法>小站教育
A fireman ran up to them. Hong expected that he would join in to get the heavy man to move. Instead, the fireman turned to Hong.
“Who are you, screaming at him to get out?” the fireman shouted. “You get out!”
Hong looked at Ramos, who was still standing with the heavyt man.
“I’m coming down with you,” Ramos told the man. “I’m not going to leave.”
“I left,” Hong says sorrowfully. “Alone.”
The next day, Adam Mayblum nt an e-mail describing his experience to friends and relatives, who nt it to still others. The e-mail was read by someone in San Francisco who knew a woman in New York named Rebecca. Her husband, Victor, a heavyt man, was missing.
进步英语
On Saturday, September 15, May Davis’s chairman had a gathering at his New Jery home. Adam Mayblum was there. So was Hong Zhu. Rebecca was also there, learning how her husband, Victor, had been comforted in his last moments, how Harry Ramos had refud to leave him behind.
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