[VOA时事新闻]The Talented but Tragic Life of Michael Jackson
By June Simms
2009-6-26
This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
(MUSIC)
Fans around the world are remembering the man who called himself the King of Pop. Michael Jackson died Thursday in Los Angeles. This was the emergency call from the house where he was living.
CALLER: "We have a gentleman here that needs help and he's not breathing. He's not breathing and we're trying to pump him but he's not -- "
OPERATOR: "OK, OK. How old is he?"
CALLER: "He's fifty years old, sir."
OPERATOR: "Fifty, OK."
A personal doctor was with him at the house.
Michael Jackson would have celebrated his fifty-first birthday in August. He was just days from launching what he hoped would be a comeback -- a series of fifty concerts in London.
More than seven hundred fifty thousand tickets sold out within hours of going on sale in March. The shows were set to begin July thirteenth. There were questions, though, about whether his health could handle the extended tour.
And after he died there were more questions -- this time about his use of painkillers. Medical examiners did an autopsy on Friday, but tests for drugs in the body normally take weeks.
Around the world, fans like this one reacted to news of his death.
