A modifier question tests whether an opening describing phrase about doing something connects to the right noun. Read the phrase up to its comma and ask who or what did it. An opening describing phrase describes the main noun right after its comma, so find the main noun at the start of each choice. Then read the whole completed sentence. Mentioning the right person or thing later doesn't make up for putting the wrong noun first.
Hints
- Hint 1
Read the words before the blank and ask who did the analyzing.
- Hint 2
Test the main noun right after the comma. Can you read that noun as the one who analyzed the meteorological data?
Step-by-step
Match the opening phrase to its noun
Step 1Identify who the opening phrase describes
The opening After analyzing meteorological data for over two decades says someone spent years studying weather data, but it doesn't name that person. Who belongs right after the comma? The person who analyzed the data does, because an opening describing phrase, called a modifier, describes the main noun right after its comma. That noun is what the sentence says did the analyzing, no matter who else it mentions.
- Step 2
Look past names to the main noun
What noun does each beginning actually put first? The version starting the conclusion makes conclusion its main noun, while reached by climatologist Maria Sanchez only tells us who reached it. Naming Sanchez there doesn't make her the main noun, so that version says the conclusion did the analyzing. Starting with hurricanes in the North Atlantic makes hurricanes do it, and starting with the data makes the data do it. Each makes analyzing meteorological data describe something other than the person who studied the data.
- Step 3
Put the scientist first and finish the sentence
Now read climatologist Maria Sanchez concluded with the words after the blank. Maria Sanchez is the main noun, and climatologist is her title, so the sentence says she did the analyzing. Does the rest form a full sentence? Yes: concluded leads into that the average intensity of hurricanes in the North Atlantic has increased, which tells us what she concluded. Choice D.