Question

legacy - the school of sport sciences (tutor) english iii 2026
correct modifiers and concise wording
correct modifier errors

1 on her way home from practice, rebekka found a gold mans watch. 2 she wasnt sure what to do. 3 there was no name engraved on the back. 4 looking at the gold links on the band, the watch seemed to rebekka to be expensive. 5 she felt badly that someone had lost such a nice watch.

choose the best revision of the error in sentence 4 by completing the sentence.

looking at the gold links on the band, ...

• the more expensive the watch seemed to be.
• rebekka thought the watch seemed expensive.
• the watch seemed expensive.

Explanation:

🆕 New Concept Discovered: Dangling Modifiers
Modifiers must clearly attach to the correct subject.

Step 1: Analyze the original sentence

Sentence 4 reads:
"Looking at the gold links on the band, the watch seemed to Rebekka to be expensive."

The introductory phrase is:
"Looking at the gold links on the band..."

This is a participial phrase describing an action ("looking"). In English grammar, the noun immediately following this introductory phrase must be the person or thing performing that action.

As written, the noun following the comma is "the watch". This implies that the watch itself was looking at the gold links on its own band, which is logically impossible. This error is called a dangling modifier.

Step 2: Identify the correct subject

To fix this error, the subject immediately following the introductory phrase must be the person who is actually doing the looking.

According to the context of the passage, Rebekka is the one looking at the gold links on the band. Therefore, the main clause must begin with "Rebekka" as the subject.

Step 3: Evaluate the options

Let's complete the sentence: "Looking at the gold links on the band, ..."

• Option 1: "...the more expensive the watch seemed to be."
• Incorrect. This does not place the correct subject ("Rebekka") immediately after the modifier.
• Option 2: "...Rebekka thought the watch seemed expensive."
• Correct. This places "Rebekka" immediately after the comma, showing clearly that she is the one looking at the band.
• Option 3: "...the watch seemed expensive."
• Incorrect. This retains the original dangling modifier error by keeping "the watch" as the subject.

Answer:

Rebekka thought the watch seemed expensive.