Explanation:

  Terrorism (or violence that is used against people to try to scare them) used to be something that Americans only read about in the newspaper. They knew that terrorists were dangerous (or could hurt them), but it didn’t really happen in the United States so it didn’t affect their daily life. But on September 11, 2001, all of that changed and terrorism hit home, starting to affect Americans in their own country.

  On that day, men affiliated with (or connected to) a terrorist group called al-Qaeda hijacked four planes, taking control of them and changing their route (or the place that they were going to fly to). Two of the planes crashed into (or hit) the World Trade Center Towers, two very tall buildings, in New York City. The planes exploded (or blew into many pieces) and caused a lot of damage (or broken and ruined things) in the buildings. Many people died on impact (or at the moment when the planes hit the buildings), but many more people died when the buildings collapsed (or fell down) a little while later.

  The third plane was flown into the Pentagon, which is a large building near Washington, DC that is the headquarters (or most important building) for the U.S. military. The fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, a state that’s also in the northeastern part of the country. Many people think that the hijackers had wanted to crash that plane into the White House where the president lives, but the people on the plane stopped them from doing that.

  Almost 3,000 people died in the terrorist attacks that day. The attacks had a big effect on the economy, too. Many businesses in the World Trade Center and nearby buildings had to close because they had too much damage and they had lost too many employees. All airplanes were grounded, meaning that they were not allowed to fly right after the attacks. The stock market (or the place where ownership in companies is bought and sold) was closed for one week.

  But the biggest change was that Americans no longer felt safe. They felt vulnerable to terrorists, knowing the terrorists could hurt them at any time. The United States now has many new laws for fighting terrorism, but everyone knows that another attack could happen anywhere and at any time. In that way, the attacks on September 11, 2001 have changed life in the United States forever.

 

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