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. |
|
2. Jessica placed her coffee mug on the table __________.
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that was still hot. |
|
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that collapsed with the extra weight. |
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Since the original clause ends with "table," the modifier which follows it must refer to the table. The sentence which choice (1) creates has a classic misplaced modifier, which means that the modifier is next to something which it doesn't modify. Clearly, it's the coffee mug which is still hot, not the table, so the modifier needs to be moved closer to "coffee mug." You could rearrange this sentence like this: "Jessica placed her coffee mug, that was still hot, on the table," and it would be correct.
Choice (2) is correct because it's not the coffee mug that collapses but the apparently flimsy table, and so the modifier is correctly positioned because it immediately follows the noun that it modifies.
Countinue
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