from Matthew Henson's Memoir
Exactly 40° below zero when we pushed the sledges up to the curled-up dogs and started them off over rough ice covered with deep soft snow. It was like walking in loose granulated sugar. Indeed I might compare the snow of the Arctic to the granules of sugar, without their saccharine sweetness, but with freezing cold instead; you cannot make snowballs of it, for it is too thoroughly congealed, and when it is packed by the wind it is almost as solid as ice. It is from the packed snow that the blocks used to form the igloo-walls are cut.
At the end of four hours, we came to the igloo where the Captain and his boys were sleeping the sleep of utter exhaustion. In order not to interrupt the Captain's rest, we built another igloo and unloaded his sledge, and distributed the greater part of the load among the sledges of the party. The Captain, on awakening, told us that the journey we had completed on that day had been made by him under the most trying conditions, and that it had taken him fourteen hours to do it. We were able to make better time because we had his trail to follow, and, therefore, the necessity of finding the easiest way was avoided.
Which statement best expresses the central ideas developed in this passage?
1. Two groups of explorers looked for a route through the Arctic snow, and the second group found a better route
2. Two groups of explorers traveled through severe winter weather, and the first group encountered more snow and ice.
3. Two groups of explorers found traveling in the Arctic exhausting, but the second group was less tired because they traveled faster.
4. Two groups of explorers made the same journey through deep snow, but the first group took longer because there was no trail