I was driving back to our apartment in Sarasota,Florida, when I heard that President Bush would be reading to schoolchildren in a local school. Even though I didn't usually watch news with my young daughter, I decided to see what the   president might say. When I turned on the television, one of the twin towers was burning and the 2^nd plane was flying into the picture. Many recollections stay with me from September 11, 2001, but one of the strongest is memory of seeing Airforce One flying in the blank sky over my head when I stepped outside into the silent world.

**recollectons-- n. memorie

**blanket--covers       blank slate(石岩)--a little chalkboard

 **blank sky--adl. empty flat

 **to go blank--to suddenly have no ideasor words.

 ***When(at a time) S+simple past, s+past progressive

 ***While(during a time) S+past progressive (prog.),  s+simple past

 **dictatorial--adj.獨裁者    

 **coup--(p,silence)政變

 **Chile-9/11/73:coup--an overthrow(推翻) of the government(政權)

 **Taiwan--9/21/00:Earthquakes-the Richter Scale 7.2(立克特地震分等標準)  earthquake magnitude(震度,震級)

 **magnitude--n.階級,規模,大小,(星)的光度,(事情的)重要性.

 **scale-刻度,尺度,等級,比例,程度,規模.  

 **excite people's mind--震撼人心--stirring adl.--thrilling--adj.(same

    meaning) **ordinal number--序數--1^ST--2^ND--3^RD--4^TH--5^TH