What is one way that the following sentence can be improved with the addition of an adverb?: The crew followed the captains orders, as the boat headed toward a several icebergs.

1 Answer

See below:

Explanation:

There are two places we can put in adverbs - the part talking about the crew and the part talking about the advancing icebergs.

The crew

The crew followed the Captain's orders [adverb]

The adverb is going to tell us a lot about the crew and the Captain:

Do we want the Captain to be competent and the crew well trained?

The crew followed the Captain's orders smartly

The crew followed the Captain's orders quickly

The crew followed the Captain's orders professionally

Do we want the Captain to be competent but the crew not so much?

The crew followed the Captain's orders haphazardly

The crew followed the Captain's orders sloppily

The crew followed the Captain's orders carelessly

Has the Captain been acting a bit off, like he's deliberately put the ship onto a course where hitting an iceberg is a possibility:

The crew followed the Captain's orders slowly

The crew followed the Captain's orders cautiously

The crew followed the Captain's orders reluctantly

Has the Captain been relieved of his duties by his second-in-command and some armed thugs but the crew still want to carry out what they know is the Captain's orders:

The crew followed the Captain's orders slyly

And so on. You can really play with the backstory behind this particular sentence. In fact, with one word you can turn the entire sentence on its head. What might be the situation that leads to these sentences?:

The crew followed the Captain's orders belligerently

The crew followed the Captain's orders remorselessly

The crew followed the Captain's orders excitedly

The icebergs

"...as the boat headed towards several icebergs [adverb]

What do we want to say about the ship and the icebergs? We could go with the speed of approach:

"...as the boat headed towards several icebergs slowly

"...as the boat headed towards several icebergs quickly

"...as the boat headed towards several icebergs rapidly

Maybe we want to add a bit of atmosphere to the sentence:

"...as the boat headed towards several icebergs ominously

"...as the boat headed towards several icebergs inevitably

"...as the boat headed towards several icebergs fatalistically

Maybe we want to talk about the angle of approach:

"...as the boat headed towards several icebergs tangentially

"...as the boat headed towards several icebergs directly

"...as the boat headed towards several icebergs obliquely

What sort of feeling do you get from these:

"...as the boat headed towards several icebergs reluctantly

"...as the boat headed towards several icebergs listlessly

"...as the boat headed towards several icebergs bravely