Question

Which sentence contains a misplaced or dangling modifier? A) Running is one way I deal with stress. B) Sleeping peacefully, the thunder frightened me. Eliminate C) The holiday season was filled with joyous celebrations. D) Mrs. Smith collected the research papers in alphabetical order.

Answer 1

Answer:

The only possible answer is letter B) Sleeping peacefully, the thunder frightened me.

Explanation:

A dangling modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that describes something or someone, but is not clear as to what or whom they refer. It creates ambiguity in the sentence, since it can be misinterpreted as referring to something when it should refer to something else. The ambiguity can be eliminated by changing the modifier's position or by adding a few words to the sentence in order to make it clearer.

Among the options provided in the question, the only one that presents a dangling modifier is letter B. The phrase "sleeping peacefully" is most likely referring to the speaker, identified later by the pronoun "me". However, because of where it is placed in the sentence, the phrase seems to refer to the noun that is closer to it, which in this case is "thunder". Since we know that it is very unlikely for the "thunder" to be sleeping peacefully instead of "me", we could make a few changes so that the sentence won't be ambiguous anymore:

- While I was sleeping peacefully, the thunder frightened me.

- The thunder frightened me when I was sleeping peacefully.