1 . On September 11, 2001, I was in my fifth grade at Hutchinson Elementary School in New York. During the day, I ____ that something had happened at the Twin Towers. But nobody seemed to really ____ what was going on. It wasn’t until school let out that I realized something might be ____. My dad usually ____ me up, but he wasn’t there. My dad was a firefighter. His ____ was less than a mile from the Twin Towers.

When I got home, my mom told me that the Twin Towers had been attacked, and my dad had gone there to ____. Most of the rest of that day is unclear. I ____only bits and pieces, like my mom calling hospitals all over New York City, ____ to find my dad. Two days later, she told me that he was probably ____.

We didn’t learn exactly what had happened to my father until much later. We ____ that he had sent a radio message at 9:56 am, when he and hundreds of other ____firefighters were in the burning South Tower, trying to ____ as many people as possible. Just three minutes later, the tower ____. The other tower came crashing down about a half hour later.

17 years later, I still ____ my dad every day. He instilled(灌输) in me a ____ for my community, and his ____ encouraged me to volunteer with the 9/11 Legacy Advocates, a group made up of people who ____ family members on 9/11 like me.

When I look back. I don’t think only of the sad ____. I also remember the great acts of so many people, ____ my dad. I’m really ____ to call him my hero.