ShmoopTube

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Here’s your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by spinning columns of air.

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Let’s hope they don’t get dizzy.

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Check out the following passage...

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How would you correct this underlined segment from the passage, if at all?

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Spinning and gaining momentum, the surrounding water is pulled into a spiral pattern by the column of air.

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And here are the potential answers...

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The trick here is that the phrase "spinning and gaining momentum" is supposed to modify

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air, not water. We know this because the idea follows logically from the previous sentence,

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which informs us on the joys of spinning columns of low-pressure air.

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Therefore, we know we’re on the hunt for the answer choice that makes this relationship clear.

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Option (D) looks like the worst of the bunch. Not only does this version attempt to modify

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water instead of air, it’s also so garbled that we suspect it’s taken a spin in a tornadic waterspout itself.

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No doubt, this choice has to go.

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Option (A) relates its information much more clearly. But, unfortunately, it’s the wrong information.

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By placing the modifying phrase before “the surrounding water,” this version of the sentence

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makes it seem a bit like the water is instigating the spinning rather than the air.

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While we’re at it, we might as well go ahead and nix choice (C), which makes the same mistake

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by placing the phrase directly after “the surrounding water.”

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This leaves us with choice (B), which correctly places “spinning and gaining momentum”

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before “the column of air.”

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Ah, it’s nice when modifier and modified come together.

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