Michael Jackson—the Ups and Downs
【*】Michael Jackson, the seventh of nine children, started his musical career with his brothers in 1964. __1__ Michael quickly became the centre of attention.
【*】During the following years the band released hit after hit and became the most successful town group. In 1975 the Jackson Five decided to leave Motown for more money at CBS records.
【*】Young Michael began his solo(独唱)career while he was still with the group. His big breakthrough came in 1982 with the arrival of his biggest selling album, Thriller. The album had seven hit singles and became famous for its video clip.
__2__ In 1984 he set his hair on fire for a commercial in Los Angeles. He was injured and carried out on a stretcher(担架). This and many other strange stories about Jackson brought him the nickname Wacko Jack(怪人杰克). Nevertheless the sales of his records went up.
【*】Black and White was the biggest hit of the 1991 album Dangerous. During the promotion of his album he invited US talk master Oprah Winfrey to Neverland(梦幻岛). There he gave the world insights into his private life. __3__ And he also admitted that he had undergone plastic surgery.
【*】In 1993 the King of Pop was accused of harassing (骚扰) children, but a settlement with the 13-year olds parents saved him from prison. __4__ But unluckily, the couple separated a year and a half later.
【*】By the mid 1990s, Jackson's popularity had started to fall. History was a collection of greatest hits plus a few new recordings. The pop star appeared at the Brit Awards to perform his number one single Earth Song, together with a group of children.
A second marriage with Nurse Deborah Rowe produced a son Michael and a daughter Paris.__5__ It took almost 6 years to finish the album Invincible. But when it was released in 2001,it was only in the charts(排行榜) for six weeks.
【*】In March 2009 Jackson surprised the pop world by announcing were that he would go on stage one last time. A series of ten concerts, definitely his last ones, were planned for July 2009 in the 02Arena in London. But on June 25, 2009, less than a month before he was scheduled to begin a series of comeback concerts, paramedics were called to Michael Jackson's rented home in Holby Hills near Los Angeles where they found him unconscious and not responding. They were unable to revive the “King of Pop,"and Jackson was pronounced dead at the L.A Medical Center.
A. They called themselves the Jackson Five.
B The following year Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley.
C. He said that he was lonely.
D. Michael Jackson was not only a great singer, he also did crazy things.
E. Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson were two peas in one odd pod.
F. Jackson's downturn continued into the new millennium.