While Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin achieved global fame for his historic 1961 spaceflight, fewer people know that Valentina Tereshkova made...

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

• While Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin achieved global fame for his historic 1961 spaceflight,
• fewer people know that Valentina Tereshkova made her own remarkable contribution just two years later.
• On June 16, 1963,
• Tereshkova became the first woman [?] Earth's orbit, spending nearly three days in space aboard Vostok 6.

Understanding the Meaning

The first sentence gives us context:

• While Yuri Gagarin (a Soviet cosmonaut) achieved global fame for his historic 1961 spaceflight,
  • This tells us Gagarin was very famous for his space mission in 1961
• Fewer people know that Valentina Tereshkova made her own remarkable contribution just two years later.
  • This sets up that Tereshkova did something equally impressive in 1963, but she's less well-known

Now the second sentence tells us specifically what Tereshkova did:

• On June 16, 1963, Tereshkova became the first woman...

Now here's where we need to fill in the blank:

• 'the first woman _____ Earth's orbit'

Let's look at our choices:

1. reaches (present tense, finite verb)
2. to reach (infinitive)
3. reached (past tense, finite verb)
4. reach (bare infinitive/base form)

What do we notice about this structure?

This follows a very common English pattern:

• When we say someone was 'the first [noun]' or 'the best [noun]' or 'the only [noun]' to accomplish something,
  • We use the infinitive form (to + verb) to describe what they did
  • Examples: 'the first person to climb Everest,' 'the best player to win the award'

The main verb of our sentence is already there: 'became'

• Tereshkova BECAME something
• What did she become? The first woman to reach Earth's orbit

The infinitive 'to reach' here:

• Isn't acting as the main verb (that's 'became')
• Instead, it modifies or describes 'woman'
• It tells us what she was the first woman TO DO

So we need: to reach

Now let's complete the picture:

• 'spending nearly three days in space aboard Vostok 6'
  • This adds detail about her mission - she spent almost three days in space on the Vostok 6 spacecraft

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Using Infinitives After Ordinals and Superlatives

When we describe someone using an ordinal (first, second, last, only) or superlative (best, worst, most important) and want to say what they accomplished, we use the infinitive form - that's 'to' followed by the base verb (called an infinitive in grammar terms):

Pattern: [ordinal or superlative] + [noun] + [to + verb]

Example 1:

• Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon.
  • 'first' (ordinal) + 'person' (noun) + 'to walk' (infinitive)

Example 2:

• She's the youngest athlete to win an Olympic gold medal.
  • 'youngest' (superlative) + 'athlete' (noun) + 'to win' (infinitive)

Example 3:

• They were the only team to score in the final minutes.
  • 'only' (ordinal) + 'team' (noun) + 'to score' (infinitive)

In our question:

• Tereshkova became the first woman to reach Earth's orbit
  • 'first' (ordinal) + 'woman' (noun) + 'to reach' (infinitive)

The infinitive here modifies the noun by specifying what accomplishment earned that person their 'first/best/only' status. It's not the main verb of the sentence - it's describing what the person did to achieve that distinction.