help with language arts?
Which of these sentences are dangling modifiers?
1)Running at record speed, Kate won the race.
2)Walking across the street without looking, the car almost hit me.
3)To be well constructed, you must check all the bolts on the table
4)While swimming in the ocean, we saw sharks.
In each pair of sentences there is one topic sentence (a general statement) and one support sentence (a specific statement). Choose the letter of the topic sentence in each pair.
1)a. Playing board games is a good way to pass the time with family
b. I drew two wild cards in the game “Ticket to Ride.”
2)a. I went to Target for an application, but they are not hiring any new people.
b. Jobs are hard to find right now.
3)a. There are many good chocolate chip cookie recipes.
b.My dad likes them crunchy, and I like them chewy.
4)a. Young children should have books read to them often.
b. The cover of the book is yellow.
The answer is C:
DO YOUR OWN HOMEWORK.
DANGLING MODIFIERS
The dangling modifier, a persistent and frequent grammatical problem in writing, is often (though not always) located at the beginning of a sentence.
A dangling modifier is usually a phrase or an elliptical clause — a dependent clause whose subject and verb are implied rather than expressed — that functions as an adjective but does not modify any specific word in the sentence, or (worse) modifies the wrong word.
Consider the following example:
Raised in Nova Scotia, it is natural to miss the smell of the sea.
The introductory phrase in the above sentence looks as if it is meant to modify a person or persons, but no one is mentioned in the sentence. Such introductory adjective phrases, because of their position, automatically modify the first noun or pronoun that follows the phrase — in this case, “it.” The connection in this case is illogical because “it” was not raised in Nova Scotia. You could revise the sentence in a number of ways:
For a person raised in Nova Scotia, it is natural to miss the smell of the sea. (the phrase no longer functions as an adjective)
Raised in Nova Scotia, I often miss the smell of the sea. (the phrase functions as an adjective but now automatically modifies “I,” a logical connection)
A dangling modifier can also appear when you place an elliptical clause improperly:
Although nearly finished, we left the play early because we were worried about our sick cat.
The way this sentence is structured, the clause “Although nearly finished” illogically modifies “we,” the pronoun directly following the clause. An easy way to rectify the problem is to re-insert the subject and verb that are understood in the elliptical clause:
Although the play was nearly finished, we left early because we were worried about our sick cat.
TOPIC SENTENCE
A topic sentence (also known as a focus sentence) encapsulates or organises an entire paragraph, and you should be careful to include one in most of your major paragraphs. Although topic sentences may appear anywhere in a paragraph, in academic essays they often appear at the beginning.
It might be helpful to think of a topic sentence as working in two directions simultaneously. It relates the paragraph to the essay’s thesis, and thereby acts as a signpost for the argument of the paper as a whole, but it also defines the scope of the paragraph itself. For example, consider the following topic sentence:
Many fast-food chains make their profits from adding a special ingredient called “forget sauce” to their foods.
If this sentence controls the paragraph that follows, then all sentences in the paragraph must relate in some way to fast food, profit, and “forget sauce”:
Made largely from edible oil products, this condiment is never listed on the menu.
This sentence fits in with the topic sentence because it is a description of the composition of “forget sauce.”
In addition, this well-kept industry secret is the reason why ingredients are never listed on the packaging of victuals sold by these restaurants.
The transitional phrase “In addition” relates the composition of “forget sauce” to secret fast-food industry practices.
“Forget sauce” has a chemical property which causes temporary amnesia in consumers.
Now the paragraph moves on to the short-term effect on consumers:
After spending too much money on barely edible food bereft of any nutritional value, most consumers swear they will never repeat such a disagreeable experience.
This sentence describes its longer-term effects:
Within a short period, however, the chemical in “forget sauce” takes effect, and they can be depended upon to return and spend, older but no wiser.
Finally, I finish the paragraph by “proving” the claim contained in the topic sentence, that many fast-food chains make their profits from adding a special ingredient called “forget sauce” to their foods.