Ancient Polynesians navigated thousands of miles across open ocean without modern instruments, reaching remote islands with remarkable precision. When...

Sentence Structure

• Ancient Polynesians navigated thousands of miles across open ocean
• without modern instruments,
• reaching remote islands
• with remarkable precision.
• When [? - deciding between question vs. statement structure and punctuation]
• They observed star positions,
• ocean swell patterns,
• and seabird behavior
• to maintain their heading.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start from the beginning:

The passage opens with:

• 'Ancient Polynesians navigated thousands of miles across open ocean without modern instruments'
  • This tells us about an impressive feat - sailing huge distances without the tools we have today
• 'reaching remote islands with remarkable precision'
  • They didn't just survive these journeys - they arrived exactly where they intended to go

Now we hit the blank:

• 'When ______'

Let's look at our choices to see what we're deciding:

• Choice A: "did they determine their location at sea?" (inverted order, question mark)
• Choice B: "they determined their location at sea." (normal order, period)
• Choice C: "did they determine their location at sea." (inverted order, period)
• Choice D: "they determined their location at sea?" (normal order, question mark)

So we're deciding:

• Question structure (did they) vs. statement structure (they did)
• Question mark vs. period

To see what works here, let's read the rest and understand what it's saying!

The next sentence tells us:

• 'They observed star positions, ocean swell patterns, and seabird behavior to maintain their heading'
  • This is explaining the METHOD they used
  • These are the specific techniques for navigation

Now, what do we notice about the structure here?

The passage is using a rhetorical technique:

• First, it describes their impressive achievement
• Then it poses a question: "When did they determine their location at sea?"
• Then it answers that question: "They observed star positions..."

This is like the author is anticipating what you're wondering and then immediately answering it. The blank needs to be a complete question.

For a complete question in Standard English asking for information:

• We need inverted word order: "did they determine" (not "they determined")
• We need a question mark at the end

So the correct answer is Choice A: "When did they determine their location at sea?" - with both the inverted question structure AND the question mark.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Forming Questions in Standard English

When you want to ask a question that begins with a question word like "when," "how," "where," or "why," you need two things working together:

1. Inverted word order: The helping verb comes before the subject
   • Question: "When did they determine their location?"
   • Not: "When they did determine their location?"
2. Question mark punctuation: All questions must end with a question mark
   • Correct: "When did they determine their location?"
   • Incorrect: "When did they determine their location."

Rhetorical Questions as a Writing Technique:

Writers sometimes pose a question and then immediately answer it in the next sentence (called a rhetorical question in grammar terms). This technique:

• Engages the reader by anticipating their curiosity
• Creates a natural transition between ideas
• Example from our passage:
  • Question posed: "When did they determine their location at sea?"
  • Answer provided: "They observed star positions..."

In our question, only Choice A combines both requirements correctly: the inverted word order ("did they determine") AND the question mark, making it a grammatically complete question.