Which sentence is grammatically correct?
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A
The soup was hot and made of tomatoes; Dan burned his tongue and gulped some cold water.
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B
After burning his tongue on the hot tomato soup, Dan gulped some cold water
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C
Dan gulped some cold water when the tomato soup that was hot burned his tongue.
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D
Gulping some cold water, Dan burned his tongue on the hot tomato soup.
Sentence “After burning his tongue on the hot tomato soup, Dan gulped some cold water.” is grammatically correct because it maintains logical chronology, active voice, and clear cause-effect relationship without modifier errors.
A) The soup was hot and made of tomatoes; Dan burned his tongue and gulped some cold water.
Creates comma splice-like error with semicolon joining loosely related clauses without clear causal connection. Awkward coordination fails to show the logical sequence of events smoothly.
B) After burning his tongue on the hot tomato soup, Dan gulped some cold water.
Correctly uses participial phrase to establish cause (burning tongue) before effect (gulping water). Active voice, logical chronology, and clear modifier attachment create grammatically precise sentence.
C) Dan gulped some cold water when the tomato soup that was hot burned his tongue.
Creates illogical chronology, suggests Dan gulped water before or simultaneously with burning his tongue rather than as a reaction afterward. Temporal sequence is confused by clause arrangement.
D) Gulping some cold water, Dan burned his tongue on the hot tomato soup.
Creates illogical cause-effect reversal, the participial phrase suggests gulping water caused the tongue burn rather than being the result of it. Modifier misplacement inverts the actual event sequence.
Conclusion
Logical event sequences require modifiers to reflect actual chronology: burning tongue (cause) precedes gulping water (effect). Sentence B correctly orders these events using a participial phrase that establishes cause before effect, maintaining active voice and clear syntactic relationships without temporal confusion.