A modifier question tests whether a describing phrase points to the right noun. Read the phrase beside the blank and ask who or what it describes, using the nearby text to answer. An opening describing phrase must describe the main noun right after its comma, even after a semicolon. Then check each choice’s main noun, which may differ from its first word. A related noun mentioned later in the choice can’t fix a wrong noun at the start.
Hints
- Hint 1
The semicolon starts a new part of the sentence. Read the describing phrase immediately before the blank and ask what it leaves unnamed.
- Hint 2
Use the first part of the sentence to work out what the winter rains encouraged.
- Hint 3
For each beginning, find the main noun right after the comma. Read the opening phrase as describing that noun, and use the earlier part of the sentence to check the meaning.
Step-by-step
Match the phrase to its noun
Step 1Find the phrase beside the blank
The semicolon starts a new part of the sentence, and the blank completes that part. Which words describe the noun we're about to add? encouraged by unusually heavy winter rains leaves that noun unnamed. An opening describing phrase describes the main noun right after its comma, so we need the noun those words describe.
- Step 2
Name what the rains encouraged
What was encouraged by the winter rains? The earlier part names seeds of the desert poppy and says they burst into bloom after lying dormant. The describing phrase means that something was helped to grow by the rain, which explains why the seeds started growing after lying dormant. So the phrase describes the seeds.
- Step 3
Check the main noun
Which noun does each beginning put after the comma? In record numbers of germination among the seeds, the main noun is numbers, and among the seeds only tells us where germination happened. Mentioning seeds isn't the same as making them the main noun, so the phrase would describe the numbers instead. The beginning thousands of curious tourists makes encouraged by unusually heavy winter rains describe tourists. With a vivid landscape, that spot belongs to the landscape.
- Step 4
Read the completion through
Now try the seeds germinated in record numbers. It puts seeds right after the comma, so encouraged by unusually heavy winter rains has the noun it describes. With the subject seeds and verb germinated, we also have a complete statement after the semicolon. Choice C.