Answer: It just does
Explanation: You see figurative language helps the author make things more interesting
The underlined participial phrase which is "continuing to stir the soup", is placed incorrectly. The correct sentence should be, "The phone rang and my mother, continuing to stir the soup, answered it". Why is it misplaced? Putting the participial phrase at the beginning of the sentence makes it a dangling modifier because it does not clearly state the specific word it modifies. In the corrected sentence, it is clear now who is being described with the phrase "continuing to stir the soup", which is the "mother".
The answer is Are. This is because it sounds the best and is grameretically correct. Hope this helps!