During the grueling 1909 expedition to reach the North Pole, Robert Peary and his team faced unprecedented challenges. Battling subzero...

Let's begin by understanding the meaning of this sentence. We'll use our understanding of pause points and segment the sentence as shown - understanding and assimilating the meaning of each segment bit by bit!

Sentence Structure

• During the grueling 1909 expedition to reach the North Pole,
  • Robert Peary and his team
    • faced unprecedented challenges.

• Battling subzero temperatures and treacherous ice formations,
  • they [?] more than 400 miles across the Arctic Ocean,
    • ultimately claiming to be the first to reach the northernmost point on Earth.

• [?] = travel/were traveling/traveled/have traveled

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start with the first sentence:

"During the grueling 1909 expedition to reach the North Pole, Robert Peary and his team faced unprecedented challenges."

This tells us:

• We're learning about a specific historical event - the 1909 expedition to the North Pole
• Robert Peary and his team faced unprecedented (never-before-seen) challenges during this expedition
• Notice the verb "faced" - it's in past tense because this happened in 1909

Now the second sentence:

"Battling subzero temperatures and treacherous ice formations..."

• This describes the harsh conditions they were dealing with
• Subzero = below zero temperatures
• Treacherous ice = dangerous, unstable ice

Now here's where we need to fill in the blank:
"they ______ more than 400 miles across the Arctic Ocean"

Let's look at our choices:

1. travel (present tense)
2. were traveling (past progressive)
3. traveled (simple past)
4. have traveled (present perfect)

What do we need here?

• We're describing what they DID during that 1909 expedition
• The 1909 expedition is a specific, completed event in the past
• We already have "faced" in simple past tense describing their actions
• We need a verb that matches this historical context

So we need C. traveled - simple past tense to describe a completed action at a specific time in the past (1909).

Now let's read the rest to see the complete picture:

"ultimately claiming to be the first to reach the northernmost point on Earth."

• "Ultimately" = in the end, finally
• They claimed to be the first people to reach the North Pole

What do we notice about the structure here?

• The sentence has several verb forms, but they serve different roles:
  • "Battling" - describes conditions they faced while traveling (background context)
  • "traveled" - the MAIN action, what they actually accomplished
  • "claiming" - adds information about their achievement (additional detail)

• The core action being reported is that they traveled 400 miles - this is what the sentence is fundamentally telling us they did

• Since this is a specific historical event from 1909, we need simple past tense: traveled

Grammar Concept Applied

Using Simple Past Tense for Specific Past Events

When you're describing an action that happened at a specific time in the past and is completely finished, you use simple past tense. This is especially important for historical events.

The pattern:

• Specific past time reference (1909, last year, in 2010, yesterday) + simple past verb
• The event is completed and disconnected from the present moment

Examples:

1. With specific date: In 1969, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.
   • NOT: walks (present)
   • NOT: has walked (present perfect)
2. Historical event: During World War II, codebreakers deciphered enemy messages.
   • NOT: were deciphering (suggests incomplete action)
   • Simple past shows the completed accomplishment
3. Our question: During the 1909 expedition, they traveled more than 400 miles.
   • "1909 expedition" = specific past time
   • "traveled" = simple past for completed action

Key signal words that tell you to use simple past:

• Specific dates (1909, 2015, etc.)
• Time phrases like "during the [specific event]," "in [year]," "last [time period]"
• Historical context that frames events as completed past actions