Doubt Over Death

Task 1
Look in a dictionary to find the meanings of the highlighted words

The Times                                                                                            February 10, 2007

Doubt over model’s cause of death

James Bone in New York
A coroner cast doubt last night on a claim by the mother of Anna Nicole Smith that the troubled tabloid celebrity died from a drug overdose.
The Broward County Medical Examiner in Florida issued his preliminary findings as a court battle erupted on the other side of America over Ms Smith’s baby daughter, who could inherit almost half a billion dollars.
Virgie Arthur, Ms Smith’s mother, asserted that the 39-year-old former Playboy Playmate of the Year was “too drugged up” and suggested that she had suffered the same fate as her 20-year-old son, Daniel, who died of a drug overdose in the Bahamas last year.
“I think she had too many drugs, just like Danny,” Ms Arthur told the ABC Good Morning America programme. “I tried to warn her about drugs and the people she hung around with. She didn’t listen.”
Ms Arthur questioned why Howard K. Stern, her daughter’s boyfriend, had not saved her. “She was allowed to do drugs and for some reason he didn’t get her help in time this time,” she said.
“What that reason is, I don’t know. But before, whenever she would overdose, he always got her to hospital in time. What happened this time? Where was he?”
Police said that they had found prescription medicines but no illegal drugs in her room. But Joshua Perper, the Broward County coroner, said last night that a six-hour postmortem examination found no pills in Ms Smith’s stomach, as would be expected if she had taken an overdose.
He said that there was no trauma to the body except for a minor bruise on her back that he attributed to a fall in the bathroom several days ago.
Dr Perper said that it would take five to seven weeks to obtain the results of toxicology tests, adding that, while they were not ruling out a drugs overdose, they would be carrying out a microscopic analysis of “something that looks a little bit unusual” that could indicate a heart defect. Ms Smith had been suffering from a fever apparently related to stomach flu in the days before her death.
Authorities say that a private nurse found Ms Smith “unresponsive” in her room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on Thursday.
The Access Hollywood website reported that the employee had pulled back the sheet to find that Ms Smith had choked on her own vomit. The website said that Ms Smith had taken a “children’s sedative” and “kept passing out” before she died. Ms Smith’s death left her five-month-old daughter, Dannielynn, at the centre of a legal tug-of-war potentially worth almost half a billion dollars.
Ms Smith recently won a Supreme Court judgment reviving her $474 million (£243 million) claim to the estate of her late husband, J. Howard Marshall II, a Texas oilman 63 years her senior, who was wheelchair-bound when he married her after seeing her in a strip club.
Dannielynn, who now stands to inherit her mother’s eventual share of the fortune, is at the centre of a paternity row between Mr Stern and Larry Birkhead, an ex-boyfriend.
Dannielynn’s birth certificate lists Mr Stern as the father. But Mr Birkhead stepped up his legal challenge yesterday by seeking an emergency court order to obtain DNA from Ms Smith’s body. The judge refused the request, but ordered that the body be preserved until a hearing on February 20.
The paternity row became even stranger yesterday when Prince Frederick von Anhalt, the husband of the actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, claimed that he might be the father of the child. Prince Frederick, 59, said that he and Ms Smith had been having an affair since the 1990s.
The baby is reportedly being cared for in the Bahamas by the mother of Shane Gibson, the Bahamian Immigration Minister, who was a close friend of Smith.

 

Task 2
Use one of the new words in the following sentences

1. This quote is often ………… to Shakespeare but it was actually written by Wilde.
2. That ………… is caused by the fall I had the other day.
3. He………… to be the best footballer in the world .
4. My uncle is a well paid ………… but I couldn’t do his job for any amount of money.
5. I think that I have fixed the ………… in my computer.
6. Before Mount St. Helens ………… volcanologists thought it was dormant.
7. Your ………… is in your hands – make your future.
8. When we were young we ………… the park, just like the kids today.
9. You should never hope to………… anything.
10. It is possible to ………… on any chemical.
11. I am ready for ………… but my wife doesn’t want a baby.
12. The ………… showed that death was caused by a heart attack.
13. I won the ………… round but I didn’t get to the final.
14. She had a………… with her brother but I think that it’s ok now.
15. I don’t read ………… newspapers.
16. After a car crash you should be treated for ………… as well as injuries.

 

Task 3
Answer these questions

1. How old was Anna Nicole Smith when she died?

2. Who was her boyfriend?

3. What is the name of the Broward County coroner?

4 How much was her claim to the estate of J Howard Marshall II?

5. When did the judge order that the body be preserved until?

6. How long did Prince Frederick von Anhalt claim that he’d had an affair with Ms Smith?

Task 4
Find four examples of the past perfect – had + past participle

 

Task 5
Discuss these questions

• Do you think that she died of natural causes?
• Is this kind of story likely to happen in your country?
• Do you believe that she should be entitled to J Howard Marshall II’s estate?
• What do you think will happen next in this story?

 

 

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article1361928.ece

Answers

Task 2

Task 3

1. 39
2. Howard K Stern
3. Joshua Perper.
4. $474 million (£243 million).
5. The hearing on the 20th of February.
6. Since the 1990’s.

 

Task 4 – possible answers

had suffered the same fate
had not saved her
had taken an overdose
had pulled back the sheet
had taken a children’s sedative