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
