TPO 28

In this set of materials, the reading passage and the listening section discusses Robert claims exploration of the North Pole. Although the reading provides three theories and reasons for improving this, the speaker refutes all of the arguments through a number of reasons which I will describe in this report.

First and foremost, the passage points out that a National Geographic committee investigated Peary's record and equipment, and they declared that he had reached the North Pole. However, the professor disagrees and says that the National Geographic Society team were Peary's friend, and he paid a lot of money to them. Also, they only searched for two days for finding documents. So, the National Geographic Society team were not objective.

Furthermore, unlike the reading passage which states that Tom Avery's recent journey to the north in less than a 37 days supports Peary’s claim, the professor argues that Avery's trip was not the same, and he carried less weight on his sled than Peary because his food was brought to him every day by helicopter. The speaker also adds that the weather condition in Avery’s journey was much better than the time that Peary went on that exploration. Therefore, these two journeys are not comparable.

Finally, although the passage says that measured shadow angles in the Peary’s pictures from his journey confirm that he reached the North Pole, the speaker disagrees by mentioning that Peary took those photos one hundred years ago, and the shadows in the pictures have become blurred. So, even the most accurate technics for measuring the shadow angles in the pictures could not prove his claim.