Unit-4-Flight-93-What-I-never-know课文翻译大学英语四.doc

Unit 4 Flight 93: What I never know
On September 11, 2001, a series of suicide attacks on the United States took place. Foreign hijackers took control of four U.S. airliners. Two were crashed into the World Trade Center. The third aircraft was crashed into the Pentagon. The fourth, intended, it is thought, for another government target, crashed into a field, apparently after passenger resistance. This is the story of one of those passengers
Sunday, September 9, 2001, was a good day for the three of us. Emmy was just 11 weeks old and we were enjoying her enormously. After three miscarriages in two years, she was doubly precious to us. My husband, Jeremy, who was thinking of changing jobs, had gone on two interviews and felt they went well. Since Sunday was rainy, we just lay around our house in northern New Jersey. We laughed a lot, and watched Emmy, and then went to bed early.
The next day, September 10, was busy, with Jeremy due to fly from Newark to California on business. I would take Emmy up to my parents’ house in Windham, New York, and he could meet us there when he returned.
For some reason he particularly wanted to take care of Emmy that morning. So he fed her and bathed and dressed her. He packed up both our cars, made sure Emmy was tucked into her car seat, and kissed her. Then he stood waving as we drove off.
When I got to Windham, Jeremy called. His flight to San Francisco had been canceled. He didn’t want to take the next available flight and get in at 2 a.m.“Screw it，” he said. “I’m going to go home, get a good night’s sleep, and get up early tomorrow.” He would grab the first flight out of Newark. United Flight 93.
Tuesday morning found me in the kitchen, fumbling with the lid of the doughnut box, when I heard my father say something about the World Trade Center. I looked in the living room at the TV, and saw the image of the fire poking through the blackened holes in the tower’s silver skin. The phone rang, and my dad said into it, “Oh, thank God it’s you.” I ran into the living room. He held out the phone, his face pale. “Jeremy,” he said.
I grabbed the phone.“Jer”I said.
“Hi”he said.“Listen，there are some bad men on the plane .”
“What do you mean?”
“These three guys took over the plane. They put on these red headbands. They said they had a bomb.”
I was crying now.
“I love you,” he said.
“I love you,” I said.
“only have good thoughts”
I was shaking and nauseated, but I also knew I could make myself do whatever was necessary to help Jeremy.
“I don’t think I’m going to make it out of here,” he said. And then, “I don’t want to die.” And he cursed.
“You’re not going to die,” I told him. “Jer, put a picture of me and Emmy in your head and only have really good thoughts.”
“Yeah,” he answered.
“Don’t think about anything bad,” I said.
“You’ve got to promise me you’re going to be happy,” he said. “For Emmy to know how much I love her. And that whatever decisions you make in your life, no matter what, I’ll support you.”
After a pause, Jeremy said to me, “A passenger said they’re crashing planes into the World Trade Center. Is that true?”
“Are they going to blow the plane up or are they going to crash it into something?” he almost screamed at me.
“They’re not going to the World Trade Center,” I said.
“Because the whole thing’s on fire.”
He said there were maybe 30 or 35 passengers, herded to the back. For some reason, however, no one was guarding them back there.
“What about the pilots?” I asked him. “Has there been any communication?”
“No. These guys just stood up and yelled and ran into the cockpit. After that, we didn’t hear from the pilots.”
Just then, we saw something on TV about a plane crashing into the Pentagon, and I thought, thank God it isn’t Jeremy’s plane.
When I told him about this new attack, Jeremy cursed again. The Pentagon was probably the jolt that made him see clearly that his fate and that of his fellow passengers in the rear of the plane were completely in their own hands. “Okay, I’m going to take a vote,” he said. “There’s three other guys as big as me and we’re thinking of attacking the guy with the bomb. What do you think?”
“No, I didn’t see guns. I saw knives.” He joked, “I still have my butter knife from breakfast.” There was a pause, and then he said, “I know I could take the guy with the bomb. Do you think it’s really a bomb?”
I don’t think so. I think they’re bluffing you.”
“Okay, I’m going to do it,” Jer said
“screams in the background”
“I think you need to do it,” I told him. “You’re strong, you’re brave, I love you.”
“Okay, I’m going to put the phone down, I’m going to leave it here, and I’m going to come right back to it,”
When my father put the phone to his ear, he heard nothing on the line for two or three minutes. Then he heard screams off in the background. And he thought, They’re doing it. It was bound to be noisy. Perhaps a minute and a half later, there was another set of screams, muffled, like people on a roller coaster. Then silence
I sat on the living room couch and all my energy seemed to have deserted me. After a while, I got up and headed for the kitchen and almost collided with my dad, who was coming the other way. He must have just hung up the phone. He was crying. He gave me a hug. I watched him cry, a bit dumbfounded.
Wait, you think he’s dead?” I said.
He couldn’t manage anything but to cry harder. I must have asked the same question five times. And then, when it finally sank in, I collapsed on the floor。
“searching for Jeremy”
Over the next months, I spent a lot of time searching for Jeremy. Often I heard his voice in my head, comforting me when my pain was almost
unendurable. I visited the crash site. I hungered to know what had happened on Flight 93 and why Jeremy died.
Now I find that my viewpoint has changed. Not that I don’t want to know what happened. It’s just that I’m sure I will never really make sense of September 11. Did someone declare war on us for a principle? Because they were jealous? To show how tough they were? Did we in this country somehow overstep, push too hard, tread on ancient sensibilities? The world Jeremy and I knew was never more than the rooms we lived in, a few places we walked, a few friends and family we loved. Now it’s gone, and no one could ever really make sense of why.
I think Jeremy always suspected he had a higher purpose. I don’t believe it was an accident that he was on Flight 93. It wasn’t mere luck that an airline passenger with precisely the right physical skills to abort one of the terror missions happened to be on the only plane hijacked that day where there was an opportunity to do that.
Jeremy was 31 when he died, had been married to me for five years and knew his daughter for barely three months. Yet I consider us blessed. He and I left nothing unsaid or undone, and he managed to give Emmy and me everything we need. And sometimes, when I’m watching and listening, I can still feel him near me, leading me forward into the rest of my life.

第93次航班：我所无法理解的事
莉兹·格里克 丹·泽加特
2001年9月11日，在美国发生了一系列自杀式的袭击事件。外国的劫机者控制了四架美国的航空公司的飞机，两架撞入世界贸易中心，第三架冲进五角大楼，而第四架据传原本要袭击另一政府目标，但显然由于遭到乘客的反抗而坠毁于一片田地里。本文说的便是其中一位乘客的故事。
2001年9月9日是星期日，对我们三个人来说，是个美好的日子。埃米刚有11周大，我们极其喜欢她。她是我在两年内经过连续三次流产后生下的，所以对我们更为珍贵。我的丈夫杰里米当时正考虑换个工作，已经面试过两次，自己感觉进行得还顺利。周日那天下雨，我们就在我们位于新泽西北部的自家屋内闲躺着。我们嬉笑着，照看着埃米，随后就早早就寝了。
次日，9月10日，我们忙碌起来，杰里米将从纽瓦克飞往加利福尼亚出差。我将带埃米北上去纽约州温德姆我父母的家中。这样，杰里米回来时可以去那里接我们。
那天早晨，不知什么原因，他特想要照料埃米。他给她喂奶、给她洗澡、给她穿衣。他把两辆车的行李都装好，把埃米在汽车座椅上安置妥当，并吻了吻她。而后当我们开车离开时他站到一边挥手告别。
我到达温德姆时，杰里米打来电话。他飞往旧金山的航班被取消了。他不打算搭乘下一班飞机在凌晨两点到达目的地。“该死，”他说。“我想回家，美美地睡上一夜，明天早点起身。”他将赶上第一班航班飞离纽瓦克。联合航空公司的第93次航班。
星期二早晨我正在厨房里设法打开一盒炸圈饼的盒盖时，听到父亲在说什么世贸中心的事。我向起居室的电视瞧去，看见屏幕上出现了从世贸中心大楼的银色外墙上被燻黑的洞中窜出的大火。这时电话响了，父亲对着话筒说道，“哦，感谢上帝，是你啊。”我跑进起居室，父亲脸色苍白地把话筒递了过来。“是杰里米，”他说。
我夺过话筒，说道，“杰尔。” “你好，”他说。“听着，飞机上有几个坏蛋。”“什么？”“三个家伙控制了飞机。他们头上戴着红色的束发帶，声称带着一颗炸弹。”我当即哭了。“我爱你，”他说。“我爱你，”我说。
“只往好处想”
我浑身颤抖，想要呕吐，可同时我很清楚，我还是可以尽一切可能帮助杰里米的。
“我感到我是无法从这儿活着出去了，”他说。随后他又说，“我可不想死。”接着他咒骂起来。
“你不会死的，”我对他说。“杰尔，心里就装着我和埃米吧，只往好处去想。”
“好，”他回答道。“不要去想那些糟糕的事，”我说。
“你得答应我，你将来要高高兴兴地生活下去，”他说。“务必让埃米知道我非常爱她。不论你将来作出什么决定，我都支持你。”稍停片刻，杰里米又对我说，“一位乘客说他们正在用飞机撞击世贸中心，这是真的吗？”
我正站在起居室里看着电视上播放此事，心想：我是否该告诉他？
“他们想要炸毁这架飞机呢，还是想用它去撞击什么东西？”他几乎在对我大声喊叫道。
“他们不会去撞世贸中心了，”我说。“为什么？”“因为整个世贸中心都在燃烧了。”
他说约有30到35位乘客，都被驱赶到客舱的后部，但，不知怎的，却无人看管他们。
“那么驾驶员们的情况如何？”我问道。“你们之间联络过没有？”
“没有。那几个家伙就这么站了起来，喊叫着冲进了驾驶舱。后来就再也没有听到有关驾驶员们的情况。”
正在那时，我们从电视上看到一架飞机撞进了五角大楼。心想，上帝保佑那不是杰里米的飞机。
我把新发生的这次攻击告 了杰里米，他再次咒骂起来。五角大楼一事可能使他受到极大震惊，使他认清他和待在客舱后面的其他乘客的命运完全掌握在他们自己的手中。“好，我这就去进行表决，”他说。“另外有三个身材和我一样高大的人，我们打算去袭击那个带炸弹的家伙。你看行吗？”
“他们有枪吗？”我问道。
“没有，我没有看到枪。我见到刀子。”他开玩笑说，“我这里还有早餐用的牛油刀呢。”停了一会儿，他说，“我想我可以制服那个带炸弹的家伙。你觉得那是一颗真的炸弹吗？”
“我认为不是真的炸弹，那是在吓唬你们。” “行，我这就去干，”杰尔说。
“隐隐约约的尖叫声”
“我觉得你必须去干，”我对他说。“你身强力壮，又勇敢，我爱你。”
“好，我这就把话筒搁下离开这儿，我会马上回来再拿起它的，”杰尔说。我把话筒递给父亲，跑进盥洗室，在水池上呕吐起来。
我父亲把话筒放到耳边，有两三分钟光景什么都听不到。而后他听到隐隐约约的尖叫声。他想，他们正干上了。这必然会引起喧闹。隔了约莫一分半钟，又传来一阵低沉的尖叫声，就像人们坐过山车时发出的叫声那样。随后便沉寂了下来。
我坐在起居室的长沙发上，浑身乏力。过了一会儿，我起身向厨房走去，几乎与从相反方向走来的父亲相撞。他想必刚挂上电话，他在哭泣。他拥抱了我。我瞧着他哭着，我有点麻木了。
“等一等，你是不是认为他死了？”我说。
他除了放声大哭之外再也说不出话来。我大概重复问了五次之多。接着，当我终于明白过来之后，我瘫倒在地上。
“寻找杰里米”
在接下的几个月里，我花了大量时间寻觅杰里米。每当我痛楚万分之际，我常听到他在耳边安慰我的声音。我去了飞机坠毁的地方。我渴求了解第93次航班上发生的事情以及杰里米为何而身故。
如今我发现我已改变了看法。不是因为我不想了解到底发生了什么，而恰恰是我相信我将永远不可能真正理解911事件。是否有人出于某种原则性的问题向我们宣战了？或是他们出于妒忌？或是他们想炫耀其强悍？是否我们这个国家的人越轨了，做得过分了，伤及了人家自古而来的情感？杰里米和我所熟悉的世界只不过是我们所居住的房子、几处散步的地方、几个朋友以及我们所热爱的家人。如今一切全完了，但却始终无人能真正弄清这到底是怎么回事。
我觉得杰里米一直认为他生来就肩负有崇高使命。我也并不认为杰里米乘坐上第93次航班是出于偶然。一位具有足够挫败恐怖行径体能的旅客正好搭乘了那天被劫持的飞机中唯一一个可以有机会进行反击劫机者的航班，这不仅仅是一种巧合。
杰里米去世时31岁，和我结婚了五年，和他的女儿相处了三个月都不到。可我认为我们是幸福的。他与我之间未留下任何未尽之言或未竟之事。他总是努力给埃米和我带来我们所需的一切。有时，当我留神观察和倾听时，我仍然能感到他就在我的身边，在我有生之年指引我向前。