Today is the second class in our current four class set. We will start class with a casual conversation. Our reading today is a book review and our listening is about a young woman who flew around the world. I have included a transcript. I want you to listen to the audio and follow the transcript at the same time. We will finish class with grammar unit 41.

Click HERE for the reading

(SOUNDBITE OF AIRPLANE AMBIENCE, CHEERING)

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

That sound is aviator Zara Rutherford's single-engine plane arriving in Belgium yesterday. When she landed, she became the youngest woman to fly around the world solo.

DEBBIE ELLIOTT, HOST:

She spent five months flying over five continents. And like many 19-year-olds, she chronicled her voyage on social media.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ZARA RUTHERFORD: I am still in the Nome - in Alaska. It is minus-18 degrees Celsius today. My hands are literally so called (laughter).

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

RUTHERFORD: So I'm currently flying to Vladivostok. Beautiful day. Blue skies all around. I'm on the autopilot right now, so don't worry. I'm not flying and filming at the same time.

ELLIOTT: Rutherford decided to use her gap year before university to try to break this world record. She frequently flew five hours a day, sometimes dealing with dangerous weather. She tells NPR she had to avoid freezing clouds in the North and thunderstorms near the equator.

RUTHERFORD: In Singapore, I got quite close to lightning strike, so that gave me a bit of a fright. And I had similar experiences in Mexico and severe turbulence in Alaska and Bulgaria, which was really quite uncomfortable.

MARTINEZ: And there was the day wildfire smoke engulfed her plane over Northern California.

RUTHERFORD: The smoke got really bad. And I was at 10,000 feet at this point, trying to outclimb it, but it just wasn't working out. The cockpit started sort of, yeah, smelling of smoke. And at one point, I just couldn't see anything anymore. It got really turbulent.

MARTINEZ: Welcome to California. While it did force her to turn around, she eventually flew on. She says Alaska, Taiwan and Saudi Arabia were some of her favorite places to visit.

ELLIOTT: Beyond becoming a record-holder for circling the globe, Rutherford has another mission. She says that growing up, she saw very few women in aviation and computer engineering. That discouraged her, and she wants to change it.

RUTHERFORD: Basically, my dream is that in the future, if a girl wants to go into aviation or wants to go into engineering, it's not special. It's just like, oh, cool, like, just another person who's doing a cool thing with their life, but it doesn't matter what gender they are.

ELLIOTT: Rutherford says now she's looking forward to spending time with her family. Taking to the skies, she says, made her grateful for just sitting on the couch and watching TV with her cat.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)