A modifier question tests whether an opening describing phrase is followed by the noun it describes. If the opening says something was done, ask who or what it was done to. An opening describing phrase describes the main noun right after its comma. So find that main noun, rather than stopping when you see a familiar name. Mentioning the right person or thing later in the sentence doesn't make it the noun the phrase describes.
Hints
- Hint 1
Start with the phrase before the blank. Ask what was originally developed for military communication.
- Hint 2
Find each completion's main noun right after the comma. Then read the opening phrase as describing that noun and check whether the meaning works.
Step-by-step
Name what the opening describes
Step 1Identify what was developed
Although originally developed for military communication says something was created for military use, but doesn't name it. What kind of thing does it describe? It describes a communication tool or system, which later reached mainstream consumers. An opening describing phrase describes the main noun right after its comma, so we need to check which noun each completion puts there.
- Step 2
Look past the familiar words
What is the main noun in the completion starting the mainstream adoption? It's adoption, the act of starting to use something; of mobile phones only tells us what people adopted. That would make adoption the thing originally developed for military communication. The version beginning consumers began adopting puts consumers there, which would say the people using phones were developed for military use. Neither adoption nor consumers names what was developed.
- Step 3
Put the technology in the main noun's spot
Does the version beginning it was put the technology right after the comma as the main noun? No, because the main sentence starts with an empty it that doesn't stand for the technology. The technology is still named too late. The choice beginning mobile phone technology makes the technology itself the main noun, which lets the opening describe what was developed. The remaining words, reached mainstream consumers only after cellular towers became sufficiently widespread, give that noun its verb and explain when it reached the public. Choice C.