Bunuel
Disappointed by his students' refusal to complete the assigned reading,
a pop quiz from the teacher was chosen to surprise them the next day.
A. a pop quiz from the teacher was chosen to surprise them
B. they were surprised by the choice of a pop quiz from the teacher
C. the teacher chose to surprise them with a pop quiz
D. the teacher was surprised by a pop quiz from them
E. a pop quiz as the choice of the teacher surprised them
KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:
C
The introductory phrase, "Disappointed by..." is set off from the rest of the sentence by a comma, indicating a possible modification problem. For the modification to be correct, that introductory phrase must modify (or describe) the first word after the comma, which in the original is
pop quiz. But is it the pop quiz itself that is disappointed? No, the
teacher is disappointed, so the answer will place
teacher immediately after the modifying phrase. So we can eliminate (A), (B), and (E).
(D) fixes the modification error but says that the
students surprised the teacher with a pop quiz, which doesn't make sense. (C) fixes the error and is consistent with the intended meaning of the original sentence, so it is correct.