I think the author chose to start the book 19 years before the main events of the story so the reader could absorb things. The author technically wanted the reader(s) to understand something before reading the real story.
<u>Answer</u>:
The modifier in the sentence, “Tom ate the burger and fries as if he were in a race,” is “as if he were in a race.”
<u>Explanation</u>:
A modifier is a section of a phrase or a clause structure. In English grammar, the responsibility of a modifier is to modify or change another element in the structure of a sentence on which this optional element is dependent.
In this sentence above, “as if he were in a race” is the modifier which changes the other element of the sentence structure. Plus, the first part of the sentence if separated from the modifier forms an independent statement. So, “Tom ate the burger and fries,” is an independent sentence which is grammatically correct and is equal in structure to the original sentence.
I'm sorry can you please go more into detail with this question?
I think compound because there were no dependent/independent clauses.
