A modifier question tests whether an opening phrase describes the right person or thing. Read that phrase and ask who or what it describes, using the sentence to answer. An opening describing phrase must describe the main noun right after its comma. When words follow the blank, read each version through to the period to check how that noun connects to the verb after the blank. A choice can fit the opening and still fail to form a complete sentence.
Hints
- Hint 1
Ask what the opening description says was prepared in the greenhouses. Use the destination and purpose of the shipment to help you answer.
- Hint 2
Find the main noun right after the opening comma. That's the noun the greenhouse description must describe.
- Hint 3
Read each completion together with the words after the blank, beginning with “are shipped.” How does the noun you found connect to that verb?
Step-by-step
Match the description, then finish the sentence
Step 1Name what was prepared
The opening Prepared in meticulously regulated greenhouses describes something prepared there, but doesn't name it. What would be sent to botanical research centers for studies of disease resistance? That points to plant specimens raised in those conditions. An opening describing phrase must describe the main noun right after its comma, so that noun must name the specimens.
- Step 2
Test the first nouns
Which main nouns would Prepared in meticulously regulated greenhouses describe in the versions starting with Dr. Halstrom's team and botanical research centers? They put team and centers after the opening comma, so they say the team or the centers were prepared there. The specimens come later, after ships or receive, so the opening doesn't describe them in these versions.
- Step 3
Check the full sentence
The start fungal disease–resistant orchid specimens names the plants, but does it connect to are shipped? The words which Dr. Halstrom's team cultivated add extra information between commas, so we can set them aside for a moment. That leaves orchid specimens, they are shipped, which names the specimens and then starts again with they. The extra they breaks the sentence because the specimens should connect directly to the verb after the blank.
- Step 4
Connect the noun to the verb
In the orchid specimens, specimens is the main noun; cultivated by Dr. Halstrom's team tells us which specimens. The specimens were Prepared in meticulously regulated greenhouses and are shipped, so the main noun and the verb after the blank connect directly. Choice D.