phuonglink Wrote:1. I have another aproach to eliminate D. "in siding" which modifies for "five nation" change the meaning of the sentence.
it doesn't modify "five nations"; rather, it modifies the entire clause that follows.** but, yes, you are correct: the meaning of this particular wording is incorrect in this case.
in general, the modifier "in VERBing", whether it's an initial modifier or a modifier that comes after the clause, should point to an action that is done
in the process of, or
as a component of, the action of VERBing.
for instance:
lesley used the internet a great deal in researching the subject of her report.this meaning does not apply here, so the modifier is inappropriate.
--
** note that prepositional-phrase modifiers, if not set off by commas, can modify EITHER the preceding noun / noun phrase OR the entire action of the preceding clause (equivalent to "modifying the clause itself").
for instance:
i read the book on the train --> this prepositional phrase modifies the ACTION "read the book", and/or the CLAUSE "i read the book" (not much distinction between these two interpretations; modifying an action and modifying a clause are basically the same thing).
i read the book on the table --> this prepositional phrase modifies the NOUN "book".
since both of these are generally possibilities, you need to use intuition / common sense to figure out which one applies in the problem at hand.
