Question

Rewrite the sentence by correcting the faulty parallelism, misplaced modifier, squinting modifier, or dangling modifier.

Answer 1

Answer and explanation:

1) Twisting the valve tightly shut, the fire hydrant stopped spewing water into the street.

There is a dangling modifier, "Twisting the valve tightly shut." We do not know who was twisting the valve shut, and it certainly wouldn't make sense for it to be the fire hydrant. To correct it, we could add the missing information:

1) After the fireman had twisted the valve tightly shut, the fire hydrant stopped spewing water into the street.

2) We enjoyed his company because of his stories and how he told them.

There is faulty parallelism in this sentence since the two things that come after "because" do not present the same grammatical structure. To correct it, we need to change one of the two things to make it "similar" to the other:

2) We enjoyed his company because of how interesting his stories were and how he told them.

3) While playing basketball in the driveway, my ball was punctured by a cactus.

Another dangling modifier here, "While playing basketball in the driveway." We can assume I was the one playing, since the ball is said to be mine. But that isn't at all clear in the sentence. Let's correct it:

3) While I was playing basketball in the driveway, my ball was punctured by a cactus.

4)The rescue team almost arrived too late.

We have a squinting modifier, an adverb that is placed at a strange position. Did the rescue team arrive or not? Did they arrive but too late? "Almost" should be placed somewhere else to make it clear whether the team arrived.

4)The rescue team arrived almost too late.