ACT English 1.9 Passage Drill

The underlined portion consists solely of the adjective "untouched." How do we know

it's an adjective?

Because it's doing its best to describe a noun, which is, in this case, "coconut."

Let's take a stroll though these options and see which one best helps our adjective

do its job.

Choice (C) says that the writer should place "untouched" before the word "layers."

If the writer does this, the sentence would read, "An coconut has three untouched layers."

Uh... terrible idea. For one, it uses the word "an" where it should use "a,"

since "coconut" begins with a consonant.

More importantly, it completely changes the meaning of the sentence. The writer isn't

describing the layers of the coconut; he or she is telling us about the coconut as a whole.

Choice (D) would read, "Untouched an coconut has three layers."

This option has tons of problems. There's the a/an issue from before. Also, "untouched"

needs a comma after it.

Ultimately, it's just a wonky way of expressing the thought and is undeserving of further attention.

Choice (B) suggests placing "untouched" before the word "has." So the sentence

would read, "The coconut untouched has three layers."

This option is incorrect, because the adjective is usually placed before the noun it's modifying, not after.

This means that the original placement was right all along, and the correct answer is (A).

The sentence should indeed read, "An untouched coconut has three layers."

Warning: we set booby traps around our coconut trees to ensure that our coconuts remain untouched.

Proceed at your own risk.