Task: Complete each of the sentences below with the
appropriate ending, paying special attention to
modifiers. Click on the ending that you think is
preferable, and then click Continue.
1. After speaking with her mother on the phone, __________.
 |
Samantha decided to eat dinner. |
|
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the family sat down to dinner. |
|
Here we have a particular type of modifier problem, called a dangling modifier. The modifying phrase "After speaking with her mother on the phone" clearly refers to a daughter, based on the presence of the pronoun "her," so the daughter's name needs to follow the comma immediately. The modifier "dangles" because it doesn't modify anything in the sentence; the daughter's name is nowhere to be found. Instead, you're given an alternative subject, "the family," which can't be modified by the modifying phrase since the family didn't speak with its mother (the pronoun "her" tells us
the sentence is referring to a single female person); a single daughter spoke with her mother. Always look for clues in the modifier indicating that which must immediately follow or precede it.
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