VOA · As It Is
Intermediate · B1–B2learner speed4:062025-03-07public domain
As It Is is VOA Learning English's daily news magazine. Each report covers a current story in clear, learner-speed English with a controlled vocabulary — the closest thing to real news broadcasts that intermediate learners can fully digest, and ideal raw material for dictation.
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01Steve Fawcett was an American adventurer who became famous for flying alone around the world by plane and balloon.
02But he also set or broke over 100 world records in five different sports.
03Fawcett was born in 1944 in Jackson, Tennessee.
04He was raised in Garden Grove, California.
05At an early age, he developed an interest in climbing.
06He climbed his first mountain when he was 12.
07After that, he kept choosing bigger and bigger goals.
08Fawcett earned a degree in business from Washington University in St.
09Louis, Missouri.
10He went on to become successful as a financial trader and formed his own company in 1980.
11He made millions of dollars in his career.
12But he began to miss the sports he had found so interesting in his youth.
13So, he began climbing mountains and competing in foot and ski races.
14He used his money to finance his adventure projects.
15Fawcett began climbing mountains in the 1980s.
16He climbed the highest mountain on every continent except Mount Everest.
17He also trained to swim across the English Channel between Britain and France.
18After four attempts, Fawcett became the 270th person to swim across the Channel in 1985.
19Starting in 1991, he began to spend most of his time on adventure sports.
20In 1995, Fawcett became the first person to fly alone in a hot air balloon across the Pacific Ocean.
21He also attempted hot air balloon trips around the world six times.
22In 2002, he successfully completed the trip, traveling more than 33,000 kilometers over 14 days.
23In 2005, he became the first person to fly an airplane alone around the world without stopping for fuel.
24He flew nearly 37,000 kilometers in 67 hours.
25Fawcett also set sailing speed and distance records.
26In sailing, he set a total of 21 world records in his lifetime.
27In September 2007, Fawcett set out on a flight in the state of Nevada.
28But his plane disappeared.
29For months, rescue teams searched the area where his plane was believed to have flown.
30But nothing was found.
31In February 2008, a judge declared Fawcett legally dead.
32He was 63 years old.
33A year after he disappeared, a hiker in eastern California found Fawcett's pilot's license.
34Rescue teams then found pieces of his plane.
35Genetic testing on pieces of bone found near the crash area later identified them as faucets.
36I'm Brian Lynn.
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