IXL | Misplaced modifiers with pictures | 12th grade language arts

Which sentence better matches the image?

A man holding an essay is covered in tape and stuck to a classroom door.

Mr. Howell discovered one of his students' essays taped to the classroom door.

Taped to the classroom door, Mr. Howell discovered one of his students' essays.

ref_doc_title.

Learn with an example

question

Which sentence better matches the image?

A snowy mountaintop with eyes squints at the sun.

Squinting against the sunlight, the mountain's snowy peak came into view.

Squinting against the sunlight, I saw the mountain's snowy peak come into view.

key idea

A modifier is a word or phrase that modifies, or describes, another word or phrase. When a modifier seems to describe something other than what's intended, the resulting sentence can suggest a confusing or even nonsensical meaning.

A misplaced modifier is a modifier that appears to modify the wrong word or phrase because it is too far from the word or phrase that it should modify.

Winston saw monkeys and peacocks on vacation in India.

This sentence has a misplaced modifier. It suggests that the monkeys and peacocks were on vacation.

On vacation in India, Winston saw monkeys and peacocks.

This sentence suggests that Winston was on vacation.

A dangling modifier is a modifier that appears to modify the wrong word or phrase because the word or phrase that it should modify is missing from the sentence.

Trying to fall asleep, the sheets felt uncomfortably hot.

This sentence has a dangling modifier. It suggests that the sheets were trying to fall asleep.

Trying to fall asleep, the child felt uncomfortably hot in the sheets.

This sentence includes the noun that the modifier is intended to describe. It suggests that the child was trying to fall asleep.

solution

The first sentence matches the image. Because the modifier squinting against the sunlight is adjacent to the mountain's snowy peak, this sentence suggests that the mountain's peak was squinting.

Squinting against the sunlight, the mountain's snowy peak came into view.

In the second sentence, squinting against the sunlight modifies I.

Squinting against the sunlight, I saw the mountain's snowy peak come into view.

This sentence does not match the image. Instead, it suggests that I was squinting.

Looking for more? Try this:

$Confetti$

Excellent!

Now entering the Challenge Zone—are you ready?

Questions
answeredQuestions

Time
elapsedTime

hr	min	sec
00	00	06

SmartScore
out of 100
IXL's SmartScore is a dynamic measure of progress towards mastery, rather than a percentage grade. It tracks your skill level as you tackle progressively more difficult questions. Consistently answer questions correctly to reach excellence (90), or conquer the Challenge Zone to achieve mastery (100)! Learn more

Teacher tools

Excellent! You got that right!

Jumping to level 1 of 1

Excellent!