World News for Students of English

05-03-2015 07:00

Leonard Nimoy, the actor best known for his well-loved Star Trek character Mr. Spock, has died at age 83. The actor died this morning – Friday the 27th of February – at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles.

His wife, Susan B. Nimoy, confirmed his death, saying the cause was end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Mr. Nimoy announced last year that he had the disease, which he attributed to years of smoking, a habit he’d given up three decades earlier. He had been hospitalised earlier in the week. TV’s most beloved pointy-eared half-Vulcan suffered for several years with the disease, which made it difficult to breathe.

Most recently, Nimoy played the brilliant William Bell in science fiction series “Fringe,” but he will be forever remembered for Spock’s calm nature, his face or neck pinch and famous catch phrases. “You live long and prosper.”

Difficult words: confirm (to say that something is true), chronic (existing for a long time), obstructive (causing a block), pulmonary (relating to the lungs), announce (to say something officially), attribute something to something (to say that something is caused by something), half-Vulcan (the Vulcans were a fictional people on “Star Trek;” Mr. Spock was half Vulcan and half human), neck pinch (to press on somebody’s neck and make him faint or collapse).

Source: www.ondemandnews.com