Question

Choose the option that best corrects the sentence:
Lying on the grass, a snake bit him.
a) Lying on the grass, a snake was bitten by him.
b) A snake bit him lying on the grass.
c) Lying on the grass, he was bitten by a snake.
d) NO CHANGE

Answer 1

Hint: In a sentence like this, the verbs have to agree with each other in both clauses. They have to be grammatically correct, and their tense should be in agreement.

Complete answer:
Let us first figure out if there are any problems in the given sentence. The construction is not perfect, as there are two verbs in the sentence that do not agree with each other, i.e. ‘lying’ and ‘bit’. This is a grammatical mistake that is common, but one that we usually want to avoid.

Now, we know exactly what we are looking for. Let’s look at the given options:

a) Lying on the grass, a snake was bitten by him. - In this option, the meaning of the given sentence is changed to the subject was the one who bit the snake, which is wrong. The verbs do agree with each other, however, the meaning is different. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
b) A snake bit him lying on the grass. - In this option, the order of the clauses is switched and there is not proper punctuation. The verbs do not agree with each other. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
c) Lying on the grass, he was bitten by a snake. - In this option, the order of the clauses is correct. The verbs agree with each other, and the meaning of the original sentence is intact. This is the required answer. So, this is the correct option.
d) NO CHANGE - The original sentence has errors as we have seen. So, this option is incorrect as we have already found the correct answer from the above-given options.

Note:
Read the given sentence carefully, and try to understand the problem in the sentence, if there is any. Then, read the given sentences. Then, choose the sentence that you think sounds the most correct.