A modifier question tests whether an opening describing phrase points to the right noun. With a phrase that says something was done, ask what was it done to? Name that person or thing, then find the main noun after the comma in each choice. The opening phrase must describe that noun, not a name mentioned elsewhere. Read to the period for a verb saying what that noun does or is, because the sentence must also be complete.
Hints
- Hint 1
Ask what was written in six weeks. The opening phrase leaves that noun unnamed.
- Hint 2
Find the main noun immediately after the opening comma. Test whether the opening phrase describes that noun.
- Hint 3
Use “received widespread acclaim” to look for the sentence's main verb, the verb saying what its subject does or is. Read all the way to the period.
Step-by-step
Match the noun, then check the verb
Step 1Name what the opening describes
Written in just six weeks after the author returned from a climbing expedition is an opening modifier, a phrase that describes a noun. What was written in six weeks? The phrase describes a written work, while the author is the person who returned. That work must be the main noun right after the comma.
- Step 2
Test the starts that name a person
Which choice starts with the writer instead of the written work? he wrote makes he the main noun, and the author wrote makes the author the main noun. Each makes Written in just six weeks describe a person, so the book's name comes too late to fix the mismatch.
- Step 3
Check whether the novel has a main verb
Now test the author's novel Summit's Edge that. Does it have a main verb, a verb saying what the novel does? Here, that makes received widespread acclaim describe the novel instead of serve as the sentence's main verb. Set that description aside, and only the opening phrase and the novel's name remain. That leaves a fragment, a group of words that can't stand alone.
- Step 4
Set aside the extra words
In the version beginning Summit's Edge, the author's novel describes the book and sits between commas. Set those words aside, and we get Summit's Edge received widespread acclaim. The book's title connects directly to its main verb, so this is a full sentence with the written work in the right spot. Choice B.