A modifier question tests whether an opening phrase describes the right person or thing. Read all the descriptions that lead to the comma, and ask what they describe together. Name that person or thing first, because an opening describing phrase must describe the main noun right after its comma. Then match that name to each choice’s main noun and read the completed sentence. Extra details can name the right thing without making it the main noun.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look at the three descriptions beginning with “A study in elegance.” Ask what all three describe together.
- Hint 2
Use the first sentence and the ending to check what has the provocative pose.
- Hint 3
After you've named what the opening describes, find each completion’s main noun. Which noun do the words around it point to?
Step-by-step
Match the opening descriptions
Step 1Recognize the opening modifier
The sentence opens with A study in elegance and two more descriptions before the blank. They tell us what something is, but don't name that thing. This is a modifier, a describing phrase, and an opening modifier describes the main noun right after its comma, so the completion must supply that noun.
- Step 2
Name the thing being described
What fits all three descriptions? The first sentence says the painting commands attention, and the ending explains that it challenged ideas of propriety with its provocative pose. The pose belongs to the artwork, which can be an elegant study, shock viewers, and explore female agency. The opening describes the painting itself.
- Step 3
Test the starting nouns
Which starts fail to put the artwork first? the Paris Salon of 1884 puts the exhibition in that position, while Sargent first exhibited puts the artist there. The version with there never names the painting and leaves challenged contemporary notions of propriety without saying what challenged them. Having the painting somewhere later in the sentence doesn't fix the opening noun.
- Step 4
Check the main noun and the full sentence
In Sargent’s painting, which word is the main noun? It's painting, while Sargent’s is a possessive, a form that shows who owns something. The owner's name doesn't replace painting as the main noun. The words first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1884 sit between commas as extra information about the painting, so set them aside: the painting challenged contemporary notions of propriety with its provocative pose. Choice A.