Экзаменационный (типовой) материал ОГЭ / Английский / 13-19 задание / 62

         Amelia Earhart was a true pioneer. She fell in love with flying at a young age, when planes were a brand-new technology. In 1920, at the age of 23, Earhart took her first plane ride. She was so excited that within seconds she understood that it was something she wanted to do all her life, and quickly enrolled in flying lessons. Two years later she had become a skilled aviator and bought her own plane. She was only the 16^th woman to receive an official pilot’s license.
         The more Earhart flew, the braver she became. She loved risk, and was often flying solo, in other words – having nobody else with her on the plane. After she had flown solo for 500 hours, which was a very brave thing to do for anyone in the early 20^th century, her reputation started to grow.
         In 1932, Amelia Earhart went on her most risky journey yet. She wanted to become the first woman to complete a solo transatlantic flight. She started on the morning of May 20 from Newfoundland, Canada, and wanted to land in Paris. The flight was very dangerous. There was bad weather, thick clouds, and often her windshield and wings were covered with ice. Fourteen hours later she had crossed the Atlantic Ocean, but had to cut the flight short, landing in a cow field in Ireland and surprising a local farmer who didn’t believe her when she said that she’d come all the way from America. Amelia became only the second person to successfully fly across the Atlantic Ocean solo. She received many awards.
         Amelia continued to fly over the next several years. She broke many records including being the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California. The press loved her, naming her the “Queen of the Air” and offering a position of an associate editor at Cosmopolitan magazine, which she accepted. Both in the magazine and in the speeches that she gave all over the country, Amelia talked about flying and women’s rights.
         Five years later, Earhart set out on a new and greater challenge: to fly around the world. She knew that the 29,000 mile journey would be long and difficult, and Earhart spent months planning. She started with one crew member from Miami, Florida, on June 1, 1937. A month later, she had covered 22,000 miles. Crossing the Pacific Ocean, she flew from small island to small island. With only 7,000 miles to go, she took off on July 2 expecting to fly 2,556 miles to Howland Island. She never made it, however. It is unclear whether Earhart was lost, crashed, or ran out of fuel.
         The U.S. government continued looking for Amelia and her plane for 17 days, but they could find no trace of them. The great pioneer was lost in a great mystery.

13. Amelia Earhart was born in the early 20^th century.