Music legend (傳說, 傳奇人物) Michael Jackson has died at the age of 50, after suffering a cardiac arrest (心臟突然停頓) at his home. Jackson, who had a history of health problems, had been due to (=arranged or expected to) stage (舉行) a series of comeback concerts in the UK in July.
- note the use of present perfect tense, past tense and past perfect tense.
- At the age of , age常用at做preposition，例如: He left school at the age of 18. 但也有其他情況，如：(1) She needs more friends of her own age (同齡的朋友). (2) children from 5 -10 years of age (五至十歲的小童) * Young people of all ages (任何年齡的年青人) go there to meet.
Michael Jackson's body was airlifted from hospital to the coroner's office (法醫官) in downtown Los Angeles. TV stations here carried live coverage (現場直播) of the helicopter's journey. An autopsy (驗屍) will be carried out later today to establish the precise cause of his death.
- lift有舉起之意，電梯就是把你舉起，airlift即空運
- carry out是很常用的phrasal verb，即「執行」、「實行」、「落實」，例如: to carry out a promise / a threat / a plan / an order (落實/實踐承諾、計劃等)；to carry out an inquiry / an investigation / a survey (進行調查、進行研究等，但請留意，只有劣質中文才常用「進行」，很多時都不用直譯英文的「進行」。)
Paramedics (醫護人員) had been called to the Beverly Hills mansion Michael Jackson had been renting whilst he prepared for a series of fifty sold-out shows in London next month.
- 留意mansion和Michael之間隱藏了relative pronoun that，嚴格的英文應用where，但今日很多時用that代替。
- 為何用had been called (Past Perfect Tense)，想必是因為之前已交代米高的死亡，而救護員被召是先於米高死亡，故可用Past Perfect Tense。
- whilst = while，留意時式的運用，這不容易明白，需慢慢思考。
- sold-out以past participle加hyphen合併而成形容詞，在英文很常見。
The singer's brother Jermain told a news conference that after they failed to resuscitate (救醒，使…復甦) him, Jackson was transferred to a nearby hospital where a team of doctors worked for more than an hour in a vain attempt to revive him.
- 不是見after(即有先後的過去動作)便要用past perfect，因為after/before已很清楚表達了時序，所以也可用past tense，尤其fail這用表達狀態的動詞，用上past perfect表「完成狀態」顯得更怪。
- in an attempt to是常見片語(phrase)，指「嘗試」，例如：Two factories were closed in an attempt to cut costs (兩間廠房給關掉，以節省成本)。Vain指「徒然」、「落空」，故in a vain attempt to便變成「無法」、「嘗試失敗」之意。
- Revive也是「使…復甦」，與resuscitate近似，後者語氣較嚴謹。
Only a few hours earlier Michael Jackson had been rehearsing at a local sports stadium, but concerns about his fitness for the concert tour had already begun to circulate, amid reports that he was looking frail (虛弱).
- frail形容人是指虛弱，形容物時指脆弱，例如the frail stems of the flowers
Hundreds of fans have maintained a vigil (守護, 守夜) outside the hospital to which he was taken, some to mourn his passing, others to celebrate his music.
- 報道時，fans仍然為米高守夜，故用Present Prefect – 在過去發生的動作，跟現在還有關係。
- 留意to which的使用 –
(1) Michael was taken to the hospital.
(2) Hundreds of fans have maintained
(1) + (2) Michael was taken to the hospital and hundreds of fans have maintained a vigil outside it.
Advanced (1) + (2): Hundreds of fans have maintained a vigil outside the hospital to which he was taken.
- mourn = 悼念, 哀悼, passing = 離逝 (pass away)
- celebrate, 這裏並非「慶祝」，是「讚頌」、「歌頌」
