Complete the sentence: The soldiers had been marching for hours () the DI told them to stop.

Complete the sentence: The soldiers had been marching for hours () the DI told them to stop.

• A. Until
• B. When
• C. After
• D. Since

Answer: (A)

In this sentence, you’re linking an ongoing past action with a later past event that ends it. The phrase had been marching for hours shows the marching continued up to a certain moment. Choosing until makes that endpoint clear: the marching lasted for hours up to the moment the DI told them to stop. It emphasizes how long the activity continued before the stop command. Using when would shift the focus slightly to the moment of stopping, which is plausible but the given emphasis on the duration makes until the stronger fit. After would place the stop after the march already happened, which reverses the sequence. Since doesn’t suit the sense of starting point and continuing action up to a past event here.

In this sentence, you’re linking an ongoing past action with a later past event that ends it. The phrase had been marching for hours shows the marching continued up to a certain moment. Choosing until makes that endpoint clear: the marching lasted for hours up to the moment the DI told them to stop. It emphasizes how long the activity continued before the stop command.

Using when would shift the focus slightly to the moment of stopping, which is plausible but the given emphasis on the duration makes until the stronger fit. After would place the stop after the march already happened, which reverses the sequence. Since doesn’t suit the sense of starting point and continuing action up to a past event here.