Nellie Bly was an American journalist, (18) ______. She also made the fastest trip around the world. She was born in 1864 in Pennsylvania, the United States. Her parents named her Elizabeth Jane Cochran. She started her career in 1885 after writing an angry response to an article called What Girls Are Good For in the Pittsburgh Dispatch. They were impressed and gave her a job. (19) ______, and that they should have better opportunities. She then used the name Nellie Bly for the rest of her ...

Nellie Bly was an American journalist, (18) ______. She also made the fastest trip around the world.

She was born in 1864 in Pennsylvania, the United States. Her parents named her Elizabeth Jane Cochran. She started her career in 1885 after writing an angry response to an article called What Girls Are Good For in the Pittsburgh Dispatch. They were impressed and gave her a job. (19) ______, and that they should have better opportunities. She then used the name Nellie Bly for the rest of her career.

After leaving the Pittsburgh Dispatch, (20) ______. She finally got a job at the New York World by agreeing to pretend to be mentally unwell to investigate a mental asylum. Her report exposed the asylum’s conditions, and it was forced to improve its patient care. During her career, she wrote about many difficult issues, and most of them are in support of women’s lives.

In 1889, inspired by Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in Eighty Days, she took a trip around the world. The idea (21) ______ because “no one but a man can do this”, but finally her editor agreed. She traveled alone for most of it, an unusual thing for women to do at the time. She actually met Jules Verne in France and completed the trip after 72 days, setting a world record.

In her later years, Nellie Bly returned to journalism. She wrote reports about World War I and problems that impacted women. Nellie Bly died in 1922 at the age of 57. (22) ______.

(Adapted from i-Learn Smart World)

Read the following biography about Nellie Bly and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the option that best fits each of the numbered blanks from 18 to 22.